where is nirav modi

Sharp Increase in Fraud Cost Indian Banks Rs 42,167 Crore in 2017-18, Says RBI

This is 72% more than the loss due to bank fraud in 2016-17.

New Delhi: Despite “stringent monitoring and vigilance,” data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reveals that fraudsters have looted India banking institutions of Rs 42,167 crore in 2017-18.

This is a sharp increase of 72% from Rs 23,933 crore from the previous year, according to the Indian Express.

The data revealed on Friday by the central bank shows that there were 5,917 instances of bank fraud in 2017-18 compared to 5,076 cases in the previous year, and that such instances of fraud have been rising year on year – increasing by over four times in the last four years. Bank fraud cases amounted to Rs 10,170 crore in 2013-14.

This year, frauds related to off-balance sheet operations, foreign exchange transactions, deposit accounts and cyber-activity were the most prominent. According to the Indian Express, banks reported an increased number of cyber frauds in 2017-18 – losing Rs 109.6 crore in 2,059 cases against Rs 42.3 crore in 1,372 cases last year.

Also read: Raghuram Rajan Gave PMO a List of ‘High Profile NPA Fraud Cases’ but No Action Was Taken

A majority – about 80% of all recorded frauds in 2017-18 – were large-value frauds, wherein each case involved an amount of Rs 50 crore or more. About 93% of cases worth more than Rs 1 lakh took place in PSU banks, while private sector banks only accounted for 6%.

This considerable increase in bank fraud has significantly contributed to the mushrooming bad loans, which loomed around the Rs 10,39,700 crore mark as of March 2018.

The RBI, however, reported that this sharp increase in terms of amount is largely due to large-value banking fraud cases in the jewellery sector – referring to the case involving the fugitive businessmen, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. The over Rs 13,000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) case has made a significant dent in the banking fraud data this year.

Operational risk management, according to the central bank, has been seriously challenged this year due to increased bank fraud, with over “90% of them located in the credit portfolio of banks,” reported the Indian Express.

The central bank reported that modus operandi of large-value frauds involves “opening current accounts outside the banking consortium without no-objection certificates from lenders, division of funds by borrowers through various means, including through associated/shell companies, lapses in credit underwriting standards, deficient and fraudulent services or certification by third-parties and the banking sectors failure to identify early warning signs,” according to the Indian Express.

Also read: IT Dept Raised Red Flags Over Nirav Modi Months Before PNB Scam Broke: Report

In February 2018, The Indian Banks Association (IBA) was instructed by the RBI to install enhanced IT-enabled, user-friendly, web-based Third Party Evaluation (TPE) reporting and establish an infrastructure with comprehensive data security and control measures.

Given the increase in cases related to the Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system, banks were also directed by the RBI to strengthen their operational control measures in a timely manner.

Banks are also required to report the names of third-party entities like advocates, chartered accountants, valuers and architects involved in bank frauds to the IBA, which is then required to circulate a caution list among banks.

Nirav Modi Cannot Return to India for Fear of Being ‘Lynched’, Says Lawyer

“Being a (jewellery) designer, Modi is a sort of “artist” who cannot provide any financial information as desired by the ED.”

New Delhi: Fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, a key accused in the USD 2 billion PNB fraud case, cannot return to India as he is afraid of “getting lynched” and is being compared to demon ‘Ravan’, his lawyer told a special court on Saturday. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), however, dismissed the claim saying if he felt there were “security threats”, he should have filed a police complaint.

Nirav Modi’s lawyer Vijay Agarwal stated this while arguing before Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court Judge MS Azmi against the ED’s application to declare Modi a fugitive under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.

Countering the ED plea, Nirav Modi also said through his lawyer that he had no record or data with him about his finances.

Referring to Nirav Modi’s claims of “security threats” in India, the ED said these points are “irrelevant” to the case.

The ED has claimed that Nirav Modi had refused to join the probe despite acknowledging mails and summons issued to him and that he doesn’t want to return to India.

Agarwal, however, said the diamond trader had responded to the emails sent by the investigating agencies and expressed his inability to return due to “security threats”.

“In a letter addressed to both the CBI and the ED, Modi stated that he was not able to join the probe because of security threats (in India) from private persons, the families of those who have been detained (in the PNB case), landlords, the creditors who have not been paid and the customers whose jewellery was taken away by the ED,” he said.

“My (Modi’s) 50-ft tall effigy was burnt in India. There was evidence of a mob lynching (against me) and I (Modi) was being compared with ‘Ravan’. I have been projected as evil and am being made the poster boy of the bank fraud,” said Agarwal.

He also claimed that Modi cannot be declared a fugitive as various legal requirements stipulated by the Fugitive Economic Offenders (FEO) Act have not been met by the investigating agency.

“The main reason the ED is seeking to declare Nirav Modi a fugitive is that he left India under suspicious circumstances on January 1, 2018. However, there was no criminal case (against him) when he had left the country,” Agarwal said.

“They cannot just say that he left the country under suspicious circumstances. They need to specify what those suspicions were. Also there is no material on record to say that he is refusing to return to India,” he said.

Also Read: PNB Fraud: Nirav Modi Seeking Political Asylum in the UK

Unlike liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who is accused of a loan default of over Rs 9000 crore, Modi had no Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) when he left the country, Agarwal argued.

He said that being a (jewellery) designer, Modi is a sort of “artist” who cannot provide any financial information as desired by the ED.

“All my (Modi) finances were taken care of by my employees who are already in the custody of the investigating agency. I have no record or data. What are they going to investigate with me, as they have taken away all my source of information,” Agarwal said.

Countering Agarwal’s submission, ED counsel Hiten Venegaonkar said all these arguments have nothing to do with the Fugitive Act (FEO).

“As far as security threats are concerned, any prudent person who is fearing threats to his life needs to file a police complaint. Until now, there is no material before the ED or the court (about any such complaint). So these points are irrelevant,” he said.

As per the investigating agencies, Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, in connivance with certain bank officials, allegedly cheated the Punjab National Bank (PNB) to the tune of Rs 14,000 crore through issuance of fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs).

These LoUs were allegedly issued in a fraudulent manner by a Mumbai branch of the PNB to the group of companies belonging to Modi since March 2011 till the case came to light.

Nirav Modi Challenges ED’s Plea to Have Him Declared ‘Fugitive Economic Offender’

Nirav Modi filed ten applications on Monday, but his prime argument was that the ED’s complaint had not been filed in accordance with the law and, thus, must not be considered valid by the court.

New Delhi: Diamond trader Nirav Modi, a prime accused in the multi-crore PNB scam on Monday filed an application before a special court opposing the Enforcement Directorate’s complaint to have him declared a “fugitive economic offender” under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA).

Modi filed ten applications on Monday before the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court of judge M.S. Azmi, but his prime argument was that the ED’s complaint had not been filed in accordance with the law and, thus, must not be considered valid by the court.

Modi argued that as per the FEOA, a complaint under the Act may be filed by the director or any other officer not below the rank of deputy director “authorised” by the director.

However, in the present case, Modi’s application contended that the ED’s plea was undersigned by one C. Mahesh Chandra Reddy, claiming to be a deputy director. He has, however, not submitted any authorisation documents as required under the Act.

The application further mentioned that the complaint was filed when the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance was in force, which was subsequently repealed as the FEOA was passed by parliament on July 25, 2018.

Consequently, the proceedings in the present case were also under the new Act, the application said, adding that actions intended to commence on the basis of the ordinance cannot continue after it has ceased to operate. As a result, the complaint was not maintainable in its present form and was liable to be dismissed, the application said.

Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are being investigated by the ED and the CBI for allegedly cheating Punjab National Bank out of more than Rs 13,400 crore.

The scam, which reportedly began in 2011, was detected in January this year, after which PNB officials reported it to the probe agencies.

Two criminal complaints were filed by the ED in this regard after assessing CBI FIRs.

(PTI)

CBI Scrutinises Law Firm Cyril Amarchand in PNB Fraud Investigation

K. Raghavacharyulu, a prosecution lawyer in the Nirav Modi case and two CBI sources who declined to be named, said CAM possessed documents detailing Nirav Modi’s dealings with PNB, even though the firm wasn’t representing the diamond magnate or his companies.

Mumbai/New Delhi: India’s largest law firm, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM), is being scrutinised by federal agents after they seized documents related to the $2 billion fraud at state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) from CAM’s premises in February, a lawyer representing the government and a police source told Reuters.

In what has been dubbed as India’s biggest bank fraud, PNB in January alleged that billionaire diamond jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle had for years fraudulently raised billions of dollars in foreign credit by conspiring with staff at the bank.

In mid-February, Nirav Modi’s aides packed cartons of documents at one of his diamond firm’s offices in Mumbai and sent them to CAM’s office nearby, from where police seized them within a week on February 21, a review of the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) court filings and witness testimonies showed.

K. Raghavacharyulu, a prosecution lawyer in the Nirav Modi case and two CBI sources who declined to be named, said CAM possessed documents detailing Modi’s dealings with PNB, even though the firm wasn’t representing the diamond magnate or his companies.

“CAM was not their attorney in the PNB fraud case, 100% sure … that’s why they could not cite attorney-client privilege,” Raghavacharyulu said, adding that his assessment was based on regular briefings he received from CBI investigating officers.

CAM declined to comment on its relationship with Nirav Modi, who is on the run overseas. Its spokeswoman, Madhumita Paul, said the firm “strictly follows the legal best practices and does not comment on matters that are sub-judice or are under investigation”.

In CBI’s first charge sheet in May in the fraud case against Modi and others, the agency said that “incriminating documents/articles relevant to the case” were concealed in the office of CAM. No charges were brought against the law firm and it was not named as a witness in the case.

Since then, Raghavacharyulu said, police have not interviewed any CAM official in the case, though one CBI source said that before filing the first chargesheet, police summoned, questioned and recorded the statement of at least one junior CAM lawyer.

That statement has still not been produced in court because the agency is deliberating whether to charge the law firm for concealment of evidence or name it as a prosecution witness to testify against Nirav Modi, the source said.

Raghavacharyulu said it is possible the police could bring charges against CAM for helping conceal documents. “Who told you we are not going to charge them?” he said. “The possibility of naming CAM in the next Nirav Modi case charge sheet has not been ruled out.”

CAM declined to comment on the possibility of being charged or being named as a witness, and said the Reuters findings were “full of false and speculative statements”. It did not elaborate.

The firm didn’t comment on why it possessed the documents seized by the CBI.

CBI’s spokesman, Abhishek Dayal, declined to comment for this article, saying the PNB fraud case was under investigation and it will not be appropriate to say anything at this stage.

The CBI first learnt of CAM’s possession of the documents when it questioned Nirav Modi’s office staff, the police source said. The documents were moved in a mini-truck in 50-60 cartons to the law firm, according to two witness testimonies seen by Reuters.

On the afternoon of February 20, CBI officers went to CAM’s office with a legal search authorisation and the documents were found in a meeting room, according to a previously unreported 10-page CBI “search list” seen by Reuters.

The CBI search – which involved eight federal police officers – included locking and sealing the meeting room overnight as the search dragged on over two days. On the night of February 21, CBI officers left with 24,625 pages of documents, which included copies of financial statements of Nirav Modi’s firms and details of interbank fund transfers, according to the search list.

CAM has more than 600 lawyers. It has advised companies such as Alphabet Inc’s Google, Microsoft, Standard Chartered and India’s ICICI Bank, according to research firm The Legal 500. It also advises Thomson Reuters, which owns Reuters, the company’s news division.

(Reuters)

Months Before PNB Scam Blew Up, Nirav Modi Bought Property for Family in New York

A bankruptcy examiner report, submitted to a New York court this week, notes that three American firms allegedly helped funnel money made from the PNB scam into finalising two real estate transactions.

New Delhi: Three American firms indirectly controlled by Nirav Modi may have used money made from the Punjab National Bank scam to help finalise the purchase of two apartments in New York for the diamond merchant’s wife and family, just months before the scandal became public in India.

These findings, and more, of how Nirav Modi’s operations in the US helped put together the massive Rs 13,500 crore bank fraud come from a bankruptcy examiner report submitted this week to the United States Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York.

The three companies in question – Firestar Diamond Inc (FDI), A Jaffe Inc and Fantasy Inc – filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US after the scandal came to light in India in late January 2018.

However, the New York court appointed an examiner (John J Carney) to determine “the extent, if any, of the Modi conspirator’s influence on the debtors [the three American firms]”.

There appears to be “substantial evidence to support the knowledge and involvement by the debtors, and their senior officers and directors, namely Mihir Bhansali and Ajay Gandhi, in the criminal conduct alleged by Indian authorities”, the examiner concluded.

In particular, the report notes that Ajay Gandhi, who has denied all allegations, apparently assisted Nirav Modi in using the American firms’ funds in “connection with large real estate purchases shortly before the fraud charges were brought in India [emphasis added].”

Also, money from what the bankruptcy examiner calls “shadow entities’ – a group of Middle Eastern and East Asian shell companies that were used for round-tripping as part of the letter of undertaking (LoU) fraud – was used to “purchase an approximately $6 million apartment on Central Park South for the sole use of Modi and his family in the US”

“Gandhi assisted Modi by paying approximately $3 million from FDI to pay off an HSBC mortgage to transfer an apartment valued at approximately $6 million from a Firestar affiliate to a trust established by his sister for the benefit of Modi and his family,” the report notes.

How did it work?

The report shows that in the run-up to the Punjab National Bank scam coming to light – which happened in the last week of January 2018 – two apartments were either bought or their mortgage paid off.

The ownership of both flats was then eventually transferred to a revocable trust called the Ithaca Trust, which was established in August 2017. The beneficiaries of the trust were Nirav Modi’s wife and his three children while the settlor was Purvi Mehta (Nirav Modi’s sister)

Essex House – 160 Central Park South

Nirav Modi’s personal residence in New York has long been an apartment at Essex House, located at 160 Central Park South. While it was purchased through a company that was part of the Firestar diamond empire in 2007, it was transferred to the Ithaca trust only in January 2018.

“In January 2018, approximately one month before the filing of the Chapter 11 cases, the property was transferred to a trust outside of the Firestar corporate structure. The beneficiaries of the trust were Modi and his wife and children,” the report notes.

“Because of the timing of this insider transaction so close in time to the bankruptcy filing, the backdrop of this fraud-related case, and the ease of using luxury real estate as a means to launder money, the Examiner views the ownership of the apartment and subsequent sale in January 2018 as suspect,” it adds.

When the Essex House apartment was bought for $5 million in 2007, it was purchased through a limited liability company (LLC) called CPRE. This LLC had taken out a $3 million mortgage from HSBC to finance the deal.

The examiner report quotes an email from Ajay Gandhi to Nirav Modi, which allegedly notes that the remaining $2 million was financed by Brilliant Diamonds (a ‘shadow entity’) and Firestar Diamond Inc (FDI).

While the mortgage was slowly paid off over the intervening years, it was only December 2017 that Nirav Modi suddenly decided to pay off the full loan and transfer ownership to his wife.

The examiner’s report describes an email sent from Ajay Gandhi to Nirav Modi on December 5, 2017, which laid out three options by which ownership of the Essex House apartment could be transferred. According to the report, “Modi told Gandhi to pay off the HSBC mortgage that day”.

“In 2017, Gandhi emailed Modi that HSBC, as the mortgage holder, needed more information on the ownership structure of CPRE. Gandhi stated that he “avoided giving these [sic] information and told them that we may do restructuring of Central Park and may change ownership etc.”,” the report notes.

The transfer of ownership from CPRE to the Ithaca Trust was initiated on December 29, 2017 – a month before the PNB scam broke and three weeks before Nirav Modi went to Davos to be part of the Indian CEO summit meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“On December 29, 2017, The Ithaca Trust agreed to purchase CPRE, the owner of the Essex House Apartment, for $6 million pursuant to a Membership Interest Purchase Agreement.503 Ajay Gandhi, as the CFO of CPRE, signed the agreement,” the report notes.

“Purvi Modi transferred $6 million to the Commonwealth Trust Company on January 2, 2018.504 The funds came from Purvi Modi’s account at the Bank of Singapore Limited.5 An email dated December 8, 2017 from Immeke Smith to Purvi Modi confirms that transfer came from Purvi Modi as settlor of The Ithaca Trust. On January 2, 2018, the Ithaca Trust wired $6 million to Firestar Group, Inc.’s HSBC account to for the purchase of CPRE,” it adds.

Indian lawyers helped complete Ritz Carlton apartment

The examiner report also traces the history of another real-estate transaction. According to the report, the funds for an apartment “located in the Ritz Carlton residents at 50 Central Park South” came from another LLC – Central Park South Properties, which was owned by The Ithaca Trust.

Strangely, the report notes that this apartment, which was bought in September 7, 2017, was “purchased for $25 million in cash”(emphasis added).

According to the banking examiner, the money came through a complex series of bank transfers which were done through HSBC while “lawyers in India were used to complete the purchase”.

The details of the Ritz Carlton purchase apparently came from an interview the examiner conducted with one Rahul Echeverz, Nirav Modi’s designer.

“According to an interview of Raul Echeverz, Nirav Modi’s designer, the purchase of the apartment was Modi’s decision and was to be for his personal use. Modi used lawyers in India to complete the purchase. On January 18, 2018, Purvi Mehta made an additional $1 million transfer to the Commonwealth Trust Corporation for the Ithaca Trust. The funds were then sent to Central Park South 50 Properties LLC. The purpose of the transfer is unknown,” it states.

While both Mihir Bhansali and Ajay Gandhi have denied the allegations made by Punjab National Bank, Bhansali also disagrees with the findings of the examiner’s report. The report includes a letter from Bhansali’s lawyers to this effect.

With the examiner’s report now submitted, the court will have to decide how to move forward with the bankruptcy proceedings of the three American firms.

UK Confirms Nirav Modi in Its Territory, CBI Moves Extradition Request

The CBI has also requested the UK authorities to detain him.

New Delhi: Authorities in the UK have confirmed that fugitive billionaire Nirav Modi is in their territory following which the CBI has moved an extradition request, officials said today.

The agency has sent the request through proper channels. It has been submitted to the home ministry which will send it to the UK through the external affairs ministry, they said.

The CBI has also requested the UK authorities to detain him, they said.

Interpol had issued a Red Corner Notice against Nirav Modi, one of the masterminds in over USD 2 billion fraud in Punjab National Bank.

The case pertains to allegedly cheating the state-run PNB through fraudulent issuance of Letters of Undertakings and Foreign Letters of Credit.

The agency recently chargesheeted both Nirav and his uncle Mehul Choksi separately in the scam.

MEA Cites Nirav Modi’s ‘Privacy’ to Deny RTI Query on Passport Status

In June, an RTI query with multiple questions was submitted to the ministry to unravel the mystery of Nirav’s international travel itinerary despite him being a fugitive.

New Delhi: Want to understand how exactly billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi managed to travel around the world despite his passport being “cancelled”? Well, a Right to Information query to the Ministry of External affairs will not yield any answers.

Ever since he left India, Nirav Modi has reportedly been travelling through various countries, even as his passport was under suspension and eventually cancelled.

In June, an RTI query with multiple questions was submitted to the ministry to unravel the mystery of Nirav’s international travel itinerary despite him being a fugitive.

The questions were whether the MEA knew Nirav’s passport number, the date of its suspension, details of his multiple passport booklets, including issuing authority, if he held them. There were also queries about the route that Nirav Modi had travelled to flee India, whether Indian passport can be used to trace a person’s route and if the ministry had used this method. Lastly, MEA was asked whether it was aware of Nirav Modi’s location in June.

There was an answer only for the first of the eight questions – MEA agreed that it does know the passport number of Nirav’s passport.

But for all other queries about details of the passport, there was stonewalling. “The desired information in the above-mentioned points cannot be provided to applicant keeping it as an exemption under Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act 2005,” said the MEA reply.

The mentioned clause in the RTI act says:

(j) information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has not relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual unless the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or the appellate authority, as the case may be, is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information: Provided that the information, which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person.

The MEA was also probably taking the support of a Delhi high court judgement of 2014 which reversed an order of Central Information Commission. The high court had ruled on a MEA petition that passport details cannot be disclosed to a third party under the Right to Information as it violated privacy and could be misused.

However, out of the queries on the passport of Nirav Modi, only some of them asked for details of the travel document.

The RTI question had also sought information about whether Nirav had “multiple passports” as per media reports citing anonymous officials in investigative agencies.

The MEA’s reply dated July 18 had also used the RTI Act’s provision on protecting privacy to answer the query about whether Nirav owned ‘multiple passports’.

This is despite the fact that MEA had publicly announced 20 days earlier that Nirav did not have more than one passport.

“The first is that Nirav Modi was issued a fresh passport only after his previous passports were physically cancelled. When I say physically cancelled it means that you take the passport and you stamp it with “CANCELLED” remark. Number two, at no stage did he have more than one valid passport in his possession,” said MEA spokesperson Ravish Kumar at a weekly briefing on June 28.

On July 2, Interpol made public a Red Corner notice for Nirav Modi, his brother and an employee. According a PTI report, Interpol gave details to its 192 members of five passports issued to Modi between May 2008 and 2017, which had been cancelled but were still being used for travelling.

This is not the first time that a government organisation has been less than transparent in an RTI query about information related to Nirav Modi which was already in the public sphere.

Under the RTI act, the Enforcement Directorate had refused to disclose the total amount of seized assets of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. However, the investigating agency had earlier tweeted on March 24 that assets worth Rs 7,664 crore had been attached in cases related to the Punjab National Bank scam.

Nirav Modi, the founder of Nirav Modi Global Diamond Jewellery House, established in 2010, is currently a wanted fugitive who absconded in early 2018 when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) started investigating a $2 billion fraud case involving him and Indian banks.

The ED had registered two cases of money laundering against the duo based on two first information reports (FIR) filed by the CBI in January 2018.

The CBI had alleged that Nirav and his uncle Mehul Choksi allegedly cheated Punjab National Bank (PNB) in connivance with certain bank officials by fraudulently getting Letters of Undertaking (LOUs) issued to their three firms without any collateral and without following prescribed procedure, causing wrongful loss to PNB.

While Nirav’s location is not yet clear, it was confirmed that Choksi acquired citizenship in Antigua and Barbuda last year.

Last week, a PMLA court had summoned Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi to appear within six weeks on a plea moved by ED to confiscate their assets worth Rs 3,500 crore and declare them as fugitive offenders.

PNB Fraud: Nirav Modi Seeking Political Asylum in the UK

“Officials in India and the UK say he (Nirav Modi) is in London, where his company has one store and is trying to claim asylum from what he said was political persecution,” The Financial Times reported.

New Delhi: Absconding diamantaire Nirav Modi who is at the centre of a money laundering case linked to the over $2 billion Punjab National Bank fraud has fled to the UK where he is claiming political asylum, according to a media report on June 11.

Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate for allegedly cheating the PNB, the country’s second-largest lender.

The duo and others are also being probed by other central agencies after the fraud came to light this year following a complaint by the PNB that they allegedly cheated the nationalised bank to the tune of over Rs 13,000 crore, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank.

Both Modi and Choski are believed to have left the country before criminal cases were lodged against them.

“Officials in India and the UK say he (Nirav Modi) is in London, where his company has one store and is trying to claim asylum from what he said was political persecution,” The Financial Times reported.

“There are always a number of complicated cases that add a little tension and spice to our relationship with India. But there is also an appreciation from both sides that we have a legal process that has to be gone through and that we are of course governed by human rights legislation,” a senior UK Foreign Office official was quoted as saying by the report.

The Financial Times reported that the Indian Ministry of External Affairs is waiting for the investigative agencies to approach it before it pushes for extradition.

On May 1, NDTV had reported that Modi was attempting to hire a lawyer who could help him apply for asylum in the UK. He had reportedly approached at two law firms in London.

The CBI had in May filed two chargesheets in the case before a Mumbai court. The ED has also filed its chargesheet in the case involving Modi and his associates, officials in New Delhi said.

They said the about 12,000-page chargesheet or the prosecution complaint has been filed before a special court here under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The court has issued warrants for the arrest of both Modi and Chokshi.

India is also pushing for the return of liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, who is on trial for the UK court to rule if he can be extradited to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering amounting to around Rs 9,000 crore.

(With PTI inputs)