Give us details on Choksi, CBI tells Antigua
New Delhi, July 25 : The CBI on Wednesday said it had written to the Antiguan authorities seeking details of Mehul Choksi's whereabouts in connection with the Rs 13,500-crore Punjab National Bank fraud case.
A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) source told IANS that on Tuesday the agency wrote to the Caribbean nation seeking details of the owner of the Gitanjali Group of companies, who is being sought in India by investigators, along with his nephew Nirav Modi.
The source also said that the query had been sent as a follow-up to the "diffusion notice" (a request to Interpol for the arrest of a specific person) seeking information on Choksi's location.
According to the source, the CBI has sought to know when he reached the Carribbean country.
"The CBI had already issued a diffusion notice and on that basis they (Antiguan authorities) should have responded," he said.
However, the red corner notice (RCN) request from the CBI to the Interpol against Choksi is still pending.
Earlier in July, the Interpol issued the RCN against fugitive diamond jeweller Nirav Modi, his brother, a Belgian national, Nishal Modi and an executive of his firm Subhash Parab.
Asked when Interpol would issue a RCN against Choksi, the CBI official said that Interpol had raised certain queries after it wrote to them to issue an RCN. "The Interpol has asked about the validity of warrants against Choksi and specific role of the individual in the alleged crime," the source said.
Responding to the queries of the Interpol, the CBI source said that the agency attached the non-bailable warrants and charge-sheet copies issued from the Indian courts against Choksi.
"As of now no queries from Interpol in relation to Choksi is pending with us," the source said.
The CBI move comes after it was revealed on Tuesday that Choksi had moved to Antigua from the US several weeks ago using an Antiguan passport. The revelation came from Antiguan authorities in response to a CBI diffusion notice circulated to foreign countries through Interpol.
The CBI came to know of it last week and shared the information with the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Both the CBI and the ED have been probing the multi-crore fraud allegedly committed between 2011-2017.
According to the source, once the RCN is issued against Choksi, he will be technically restricted to the Carribbean islands only.
On July 11, the ED asked a special court in Mumbai to declare both diamond merchants -- Choksi and Nirav Modi -- as "fugitives" under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance 2018 because they had fled India a month before they were named in the fraud case on January 31.
The ED has been probing two cases of money laundering against Choksi, Nirav Modi and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on the basis of an FIR registered by the CBI.
In these cases, the ED had on May 24 and May 26 filed prosecution complaints or charge-sheets against Choksi and Nirav Modi.
The court has taken cognisance of the charge-sheets and issued non-bailable warrant against both of them.
On the request of the ED and the CBI, the Interpol had earlier issued RCN against Nirav Modi.
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Union government assumes full control over TV ratings, TRAI role curtailed: Report
New Delhi: The Union government has assumed full control over television audience measurement, removing the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from oversight of the ratings system that underpins the country’s ₹36,000 crore television advertising market, according to a report published on Wednesday.
The report in Mint said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) now has exclusive authority over the framework governing how television ratings are measured and regulated. TRAI had been entrusted with oversight of TV ratings in 2012 during the UPA government’s tenure. TRAI is no longer mentioned in the relevant policy document, effectively vesting sole authority in the MIB.
The report said TRAI will continue to regulate other aspects of broadcasting, including channel pricing, advertising caps, interconnection and distribution norms, service quality and compliance standards. Its role in determining how ratings agencies track viewing behaviour has been withdrawn.
Television Rating Points (TRPs), which reflect viewership patterns, guide advertisers in deciding where to allocate spending across channels and time slots.
A government source quoted in the report said the ministry could modify TRAI’s decisions even when the regulator oversaw broadcasting.
A former CEO of Prasar Bharati told the newspaper that the MIB has historically regulated rating agencies through licensing and guidelines, and by holding them accountable under existing norms.
During its tenure overseeing ratings, TRAI had taken decisions affecting the broadcast sector, which included capping advertising time at 12 minutes per hour following complaints about excessive commercial breaks and it now remains unclear how these matters will be addressed under the revised arrangement.
Satya N. Gupta, former principal advisor at TRAI, was quoted as saying that merging regulatory functions with policy oversight and removing an independent regulator from the process was a retrograde step.
TRAI’s involvement in broadcasting had earlier attracted criticism as well. In 2012, its consultation paper on quantitative limits on television advertising was viewed by some as overlapping with the Advertising Standards Council of India’s code. Subsequent recommendations covering television audience measurement, ownership of news channels and issues such as paid news had also raised concerns among sections of the industry.
Television ratings have faced scrutiny in recent years, including during the controversy involving the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), where officials of the ratings body were prosecuted over allegations of manipulation of viewership data.
