Absconding businessman Nirav Modi is in possession of six passports and may face a new First Information Report for violating the law, PTI reported on Sunday, quoting an unidentified official as saying. The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate have purportedly tracked Modi to Belgium.

The businessman is an accused in the Rs 13,000-crore Punjab National Bank scam along with his uncle Mehul Choksi. In February, reports said Modi and Choksi had claimed that they failed to appear before the Enforcement Directorate as their “passports have been revoked”. The two accused are believed to have left the country before charges could be filed against them.

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Two of the six passports were active for a while, the official said while adding that the lack of a uniform international system hindered the revoked passports being detected. “It is a criminal offence to use a revoked passport and also to possess more than one valid passport if a person does not enjoy a special status like that of a diplomatic entity, a government employee or on a few other grounds,” the official told PTI.

In February, the Central Bureau of Investigation has asked Interpol to help locate Nirav Modi, his wife Ami Modi, brother Nishal Modi and uncle Mehul Choksi.

On June 12, a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court in Mumbai had issued a non-bailable warrant against Nirav Modi.

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The scam

On February 14, the Punjab National Bank informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it had detected “fraudulent and unauthorised transactions” worth Rs 11,380 crore at its Brady House branch in South Mumbai. A few officials of the public sector bank had allegedly issued fraudulent Letters of Undertaking to Modi’s companies. Some of them have been arrested and are under investigation.

The bank revised the figure to Rs 12,703 crore and later to around Rs 13,645 crore.