Nirav Modi bought flat in London for ₹73 Crore and paid in cash

One of India’s ‘Most Wanted’ Nirav Modi purchased his London flat in January, 2018 the day after he flew out of India. Charged with bank fraud and embezzlement worth ₹26,000 Crore, the jeweller is said to have paid 7.95 million Pounds (approximately ₹73 Crore) in cash, indicate authenticated documents related to the transfer of property.

The Congress on Friday, the World Sleep Day, accused the Modi Government of complicity and collusion with ‘Chhota Modi’ and allowing him to escape from India.

PM Modi i.e ‘Desh Ka Chowkidar’ and his government slept, the party said, while Chhota Modi i.e Nirav Modi looted crores, fled the country, posed with the PM, globe trotted the world and opened a new Diamond business in London.

The Interpol’s Red Corner notice, pointed out Congress spokesman Pawan Khera, was issued in July, 2018, almost six months after Nirav Modi’s passport was revoked by the Modi Government. Explaining in Parliament how chhota Modi managed to keep flying despite the revocation of his passport, the Government had replied that though the passport was revoked, it was not ‘physically destroyed’.

Chhota Modi, a fugitive according to the Modi Government, was photographed in London by The Daily Telegraph, which reported that the Indian fugitive was living in a plush flat, was wearing a jacket made of ostrich hide costing Rupees nine lakhs and that he had set up a new business.

The Congress spokesman released documents to point out that the registered address of Nirav Modi’s new business enterprise, Diamond Holdings, is the same as the address of his Chartered Accounting firm, which figures in the Panama Papers.

‘Dattani Chartered Accountants’ appears in the ‘Panama Papers’ Investigation of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). In the offshore leaks database, Dattani Chartered Accountants is linked to 53 entities in the Panama Papers. [https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/12153777 Annexure A4]

Khera released details to show that while Nirav Modi flew out of India on January 1, on January 23 the Press Information Bureau tweeted pictures of Modi with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Davos, exactly a month before his passport was revoked by the Indian Government.

Records suggest that he landed at Heathrow airport in London from New York on February 10. He flew out to Hong Kong and flew back to London on February 15, a day before his pass port was suspended by the Modi Government, which revoked the passport on February 23.

However, Nirav Modi continued to travel and in February and March, visited at least six countries, he claimed. They include UK, UAE, France, Germany, Belgium and Hong Kong.

Nirav Modi is currently living in Centre Point Apartment Tower on Companies House, the UK’s registrar of companies, the documents revealed.

“If these documents are right, the simple question that every Indian will be asking is going to be the following. If the Congress can expose this entire chain of events and establish this trail, why did the CBI, ED, SFIO and other investigative agencies of the Modi government could not do it after 14 months of his escape?”

“Is it not a clear cut case of criminal complacency, complicity and connivance by Modi government with economic offenders like Nirav Modi,” the Congress asked. The nation wants to know,” asked Khera.