Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Vijay Mallya fled India as probe agencies did not arrest them at proper time: Court

Special court in Mumbai criticizes probe agencies for failing to arrest businessmen involved in scams like Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya.

Businessmen involved in multi-million dollar scams, such as Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya, were able to flee the country because probe agencies failed to arrest them at the proper time, a special court in Mumbai said recently.

Special judge M.G. Deshpande made the remark while hearing a plea of an accused booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) seeking modification in his bail condition.

The Court, on May 29, accepted the plea of Vyomesh Shah, an accused in a money laundering case, to drop the bail condition of getting the court's prior permission to travel abroad. The detailed order was made available recently.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had argued that allowing Mr. Shah's application would give rise to situations like Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya and Mehul Choksi.

Rejecting the probe agency's contention, the judge said, "I thoughtfully examined this argument and felt it necessary to note that all these persons fled because of the failure of the investigating agencies concerned in not arresting them at the proper time."

On the contrary, Mr. Shah had appeared before the court responding to the summons, secured bail, and applied many times to travel abroad, he said. Mr. Shah's case cannot be equated with the cases of Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Mehul Chokshi etc, the court held.

Diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are prime accused in the multi-crore PNB scam. Mr. Modi is currently serving a prison sentence in the UK, while his uncle lives in Antigua. Mr. Mallya, currently in the UK, is accused in the over 900-crore alleged loan fraud case, being probed by the ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).