The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday submitted before a special CBI court a voluminous around 2,600 page affidavit of the extradition request of Indian government to the US government, setting in motion the process for extradition of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi’s younger brother Nehal Modi from the USA, also an accused in the Punjab National Bank fraud case.
Special Public Prosecutor for the agency A. Limosin said that the CBI had received information of Nehal Modi being arrested in the USA in December last year and then had planned his extradition. Until then his whereabouts were not known. In February, the agency and the ED had succeeded in a UK court to get a nod for the extradition of Nirav Modi.
The case in which Nehal Modi was arrested in the US pertains to him obtaining diamonds worth USD 2.6 million from a diamond company in 2015 on favourable credit terms and then liquidating the diamonds for his own benefit. He was later released on bail in the case.
Prosecutor Limosin said that the affidavit made before the court needs to be signed by the judge on every page as part of the procedure. The younger Modi is accused no. 27 in the PNB fraud case and was chargesheeted in 2019. After cognizance of the chargesheet the court had summoned him along with other accused to be present before it. But he along with some other co-accused had been absconding, resulting in an open non-bailable warrant being issued by the court against them, that are still pending. A red-corner notice was also issued by the Interpol against Nehal Modi. He was allegedly never available for investigation in the case.
Nehal Modi has been accused by the CBI of disappearance of evidence including electronic evidence such as mobiles and laptops and shipping of original documents to another firm so as to avoid them being found. The agency has also alleged that he had been part of compelling some dummy directors in overseas firms of Modi’s to move from Dubai to Egypt and sign dubious documents.
