According to a special court, businessmen involved in multi-million dollar frauds like Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya were able to flee the country because investigating agencies did not arrest them at the right time.
Special Judge MG Deshpande’s comment comes while hearing the plea of an accused booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) when he sought modification of his bail condition.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had argued that allowing Shah’s request would lead to situations like those of Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya and Mehul Choksi.
Rejecting the investigation agency’s argument, the judge said: “I have carefully examined this argument and felt it necessary to point out that all these people fled due to the failure of the investigation agencies concerned to arrest them at the right time.”
However, on May 29, the court accepted the plea of Vyomesh Shah, accused in a money laundering case, to withdraw the bail condition of taking prior permission of the court to travel abroad.
The detailed order became available recently.
According to PTI, the special judge said, Shah had appeared before the court responding to the summons, got bail and applied many times to travel abroad. Shah’s case cannot be equated with that of Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi, etc., the court held.
Diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are the main accused in the multi-crore PNB scam. Although his uncle lives in Antigua, Modi is currently serving a prison sentence in the United Kingdom.
Vijay Mallya, accused in the alleged loan fraud case worth over Rs 900 crore, which is being investigated by the Education Department and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), is currently in the United Kingdom.
Vijay Mallya’s recent tweet about Virat Kohli created a stir across the country. Mallya, who currently lives in the UK and is trying to avoid extradition to India, posted on his ‘X’: “When I put for the RCB franchise and put for Virat, my inner instinct told me that I couldn’t have done better. options”, in the middle of IPL 2024.
According to sources, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has raised the issue of extradition of fugitives Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi in all trade-related meetings between India and the UK.
Time and again, UK delegations that have come to India have faced Indian pressure to extradite Mallya and Nirav Modi, sources revealed.