CBI urges Interpol body to restore Mehul Choksi's red notice

The Central Bureau of Investigation said on Tuesday that it has approached the Commission for Control of Interpol's Files (CCF) over the deletion of a red corner notice against Mehul Choksi, who is wanted in India in connection with the alleged ₹20,000 crore scam at Punjab National Bank.

The agency also continues to exercise the available remedial and appellate options within Interpol for the rectification of the "faulty decision" and restoration of the RCN against Choksi, it said.

The CCF is a separate body within Interpol that is not under the control of the Interpol Secretariat and is mainly staffed by elected lawyers from different countries.


According to the CBI, the CCF has clarified to the agency that its decision in no manner had any determination on any guilt or innocence of Choksi for crimes he remained charged in India.

Choksi and his nephew, Nirav Modi, are prime accused in the bank fraud case. They managed to flee the country nearly a month before the CBI registered a case in January 2018. While Choksi has given up his Indian citizenship and taken up the citizenship of two Caribbean islands, Antigua and Barbuda, Nirav Modi is lodged at a jail in London.

"The movements of the criminal were tracked by CBI in close direct coordination with foreign law enforcement agencies and he was geo-located to Antigua and Barbuda," the CBI said, adding that extradition request against Choksi had been sent through diplomatic channels to the authorities of Antigua and Barbuda in August 2018.