DNA Edit: Nirav Modi in the net – His arrest ahead of polls will work in BJP’s favour

When fugitive diamond trader Nirav Modi surfaced in London recently, opposition parties in India went hammer and tongs at the Narendra Modi government, and made a mockery of his chowkidar campaign. Now, on the eve of Lok Sabha polls, his arrest and talks about his extradition will be capitalised by the BJP to burnish its image as a party that has zero-tolerance for corruption. Nirav had tried virtually every trick in the book to evade arrest and avoid prosecution. He fled the country, sought citizenship of a small Pacific island nation called Vanuatu, tried to secure permanent residency in Singapore, roped in the UK’s big law firms to find shelter in a third country and even contemplated changing his countenance through plastic surgery. He is finally in police custody and going by Mallya’s case, Nirav’s extradition should be a smooth affair for the Indian government. 

His uncle Mehul Choksi proved to be a smart cookie having given up Indian citizenship and finding shelter in the Carribean island nation Antigua, which also gave him citizenship. But the evidence against them is so overwhelming that authorities feel it’s just a matter of time before both are brought back to India. What is heartening is the British government’s cooperation in both Vijay Mallya and Nirav’s cases. The charges of money laundering and bank fraud under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Nirav in the $2 billion Punjab National Bank fraud case cannot be ignored by any international court. The words of London Metropolitan Magistrate who remanded Nirav to custody made it amply clear that the court is not leaving anything to chance, given the celebrity jeweller’s notoriety. Judge Marie Mallon had said: “Given the high value of amount involved in the allegations, and the access you may have to means of escape... I have substantial grounds to believe that you may fail to surrender”. 

What boggles the mind is how Nirav managed to live openly in London since June 2018 without drawing attention of the police while Indian authorities have been seeking his arrest since February 2018. His lawyers claim that he was employed in London on a monthly salary of £20,000 and regularly paid his council tax. The Modi government should make examples out of both Vijay and Nirav to deter so-called tycoons from fleeing the country with billions of taxpayers’ money. The loopholes in the law that these fugitive businessmen used to get out of India underscores the need to make the system foolproof. 

It hardly comes as a surprise that Nirav and Mallya’s cases have been highly politicised with both the Congress and the BJP trading charges and accusing each other of nepotism. That Nirav could allegedly cheat Punjab National Bank to the tune of over Rs 13,000 crore, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank, lays bare the vulnerability of PSUs. The Indian political establishment is more than keen to score brownie points instead of bringing in long-term reforms in public sector banking.