The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has rubbished media reports that said the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) had confirmed to Indian authorities by March 2018 that absconding diamantiare Nirav Modi, wanted in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, was in the UK.
“In this connection, it is submitted that no such formal or informal communication was received by the ED from the UK authorities. The said fact is evident from the reply received from the National Central Bureau (Manchester), UK (which is the nodal agency in the UK for matters relating to Red Corner Notice (RCN)) in June, 2018 in response to ED’s request for publication of RCN against Nirav Modi wherein NCB–Manchester had requested Indian authorities to provide them with intelligence suggesting that Nirav Modi is in UK,” said a press note issued by ED.
On the contrary, ED said on record that the UK government has been slow to respond to certain requests raised by the former and that the Indian authorities are still waiting for UK’s response. ED said that it had also sent a request under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) to the UK Authorities on March 17 for collection of relevant documents and other details.
ED said while they want Modi to be extradited as soon as possible, the consistent stand of the UK government regarding execution of warrant is that non-bailable warrant (NBW) can only be executed through an extradition request and not through any letter rogatory (LR) sent under MLAT. While ED had sent the first NBW on March 5 last year, it said that this was not acted upon by the UK government.
“Simultaneously, a request was made by ED to the National Central Bureau-India, which functions under the Central Bureau of Investigation , for publication of RCN against Nirav Modi. On the basis of the said request, the RCN was published on June 29 last year, by Interpol against Nirav Modi. Thereafter, the request for extradition was sent to UK Government on July 31,” the press note explained.