How did Nirav Modi fly to New York?

Despite claims by the Indian Government to have revoked (cancelled) the passport of the fugitive celebrity jeweller Nirav Modi, authorities in both India and the UK believe Modi is travelling with a valid Indian passport.

While the jeweller’s passport is said to have been cancelled on February 23 this year, media reports first claimed that he was sighted in Hong Kong and thereafter in New York. British authorities confirmed that Nirav Modi flew out of London in the third week of March.

Officials in New Delhi claimed on condition of anonymity that while the passport was indeed revoked for four weeks in the third week of February, they are not aware if the cancellation had been renewed after four weeks.

Officials at the British High Commission in New Delhi told NH that Nirav Modi still held a valid Indian passport. “I am pretty sure that he was in possession of a passport. How else would he have flown out of the UK,” these sources asserted, doubting that the passport had actually been revoked as claimed by the Indian Government.

Officials involved with Indian Immigration agreed but refused to confirm or deny if Modi’s passport is still invalid. “It would normally be impossible for a person with a revoked passport to leave the UK or any other country,” the officials told NH.

The celebrity diamontaire, however, is suspected to have acquired Belgian citizenship. His family including his brother have lived in Antwerp for long. His wife is an American citizen.

Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi had in February been given a week to show cause why their passports shouldn’t be revoked. After receiving no response from the businessmen, their passports were revoked on February 23, according to a written reply by Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs General VK Singh in the Rajya Sabha on April 5.

In the lead-up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Wuhan to meet President Xi Jinping, it was reported that Nirav Modi had left Hong Kong for London on February 14, two days before his passport was cancelled. The travel plan of the diamantaire also raises the question of the veracity of the statement made by VK Singh in Parliament.

Singh had revealed that the Indian government had sought the repatriation of the businessman from Hong Kong on March 23, as per the provisions of a 1997 treaty signed between the two countries.

"The ministry has sought the provisional arrest of Nirav Deepak Modi by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China, for which a request has been submitted to them on March 23, 2018," Singh had stated.

But it is unclear as to how India could request Modi’s extradition if he wasn’t in Hong Kong at all at the time the request was made.

According to official records accessed by India Today, Modi left Mumbai for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on January 1, from where he flew to Hong Kong a month later on February 2. The Central Bureau of Investigation had registered an FIR against him on January 31 in the Rs 12,000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud.

He travelled from Hong Kong to London on February 14, touching down at the British capital the next day. His passport was still valid at the time.

However, his next move from London to New York in the third week of March was when, as per the Indian government, he was without an official passport.

It is unclear at this stage if Modi held two Indian passports or held dual citizenship, both illegal as per Indian law.