‘Systemic Error’ May Have Allowed Nirav Modi To Travel On Revoked Passport

A “communication gap” between the Central Bureau of Investigation and immigration departments may have allowed diamontiare Nirav Modi to travel to several countries even after this passport was revoked.

That’s according to DR Kaarthikeyan, former director at CBI. The other possibility is that Modi used his wealth to his benefit, Kaarthikeyan told BloombergQuint in an interview. Vivek Katju, former secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs agreed but said the CBI needs to take responsibility. “The question is what follow-up action has the CBI taken to ensure that it does go through all the systems of the countries to which Modi seems to have travelled?”

Modi had managed to travel across several countries even after information about his passport being revoked by the Indian government was flashed in the Interpol central database on Feb. 24, CBI said earlier this week. The agency said it had shared the information about revocation of his passport in the ‘diffusion’ notice issued through the Interpol on Feb. 15.

That didn’t prevent the absconding diamantaire from travelling between New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris between Feb. 10 and March 28.

While the CBI sent diffusion notices to all Interpol countries regarding his whereabouts, only the U.K. responded to the letter stating the Indian businessman was last seen in the country on May 31.

Watch the full discussion with DR Kaarthikeyan, Former Director, CBI and Vivek Katju, Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs.