Fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi, who is at the centre of the Rs 13,000-crore PNB fraud case, reportedly travelled on his Indian passport when he took a Eurostar high-speed train from London to Brussels on 12 June.
His passport was revoked on 24 February.
In a shocking development, it has come to light that the absconding diamond merchant possessed at least half-a-dozen Indian passports.
Agencies probing the alleged fraud informed on Sunday that a fresh FIR was being planned against him for this offence.
On 12 June, Nirav Modi reportedly avoided taking a flight and chose to travel by rail instead. Indian officials have verified details of Modi’s travel from European immigration authorities who captured Modi’s passport details on his trip to Brussels from London.
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Modi has been traced to Belgium by Indian intelligence agencies. His frequent travels, despite the revocation of his passport, led the agencies to unearth that two of the six passports he held had been active for quite some time.
The four other passports were found to be not active, sources said.
Of the two active passports, one had Modi’s full name while the other only had his first name with a 40-month UK visa issued against it, and that is probably how he kept travelling to various countries despite the government revoking his first known passport earlier this year, the sources told PTI.
The second passport was also subsequently revoked by the Indian authorities.
The sources said the government, through the Ministry of External Affairs, has informed the Interpol about the two revoked passports of Modi, but it appears that in the absence of a uniform international mechanism, the legal blocking of the documents in various countries could not be done and the fugitive diamantaire kept using those to travel through airports and possibly seaports too.
The revocation order of the passports has been appended to the application of the probe agencies (CBI and ED), seeking an Interpol arrest warrant or a “red corner notice” against Modi.
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“It is a criminal offence to use a revoked passport and also to possess more than one valid passport if a person does not enjoy a special status like that of a diplomatic entity, a government employee or on a few other grounds.
“A fresh criminal FIR may be filed against Nirav Modi and he may face prosecution for the offence after the completion of an internal inquiry,” a senior official in the security establishment said.
He added that an inquiry was also being held to ascertain if Modi was using passports issued by other countries to travel.
(With agency inputs)