The current news that has shocked the nation is the fraud case of loans linked to renowned jeweler Nirav Modi.
AS the BJP and Congress blame each other for looking the other way while diamond czar Nirav Modi and his family allegedly defrauded the Punjab National Bank, the CBI has said that a majority of the Letters of Understanding (LoUs) in the Rs 11,400-crore scam were either issued or were renewed in the bank in 2017-18.
The CBI on Thursday registered a fresh FIR in the case against Mehul Choksi, maternal uncle of Nirav Modi, and his three companies claiming that they swindled PNB to the tune of Rs 4,886.72 crore in 2017-18 by way of getting 143 LoUs issued through the bank.
Notably, the first FIR in the case dealing with alleged swindling of Rs 280.7 crore through eight LoUs registered by the agency on January 31 also mentions that the LoUs were issued in 2017. To this FIR, CBI has now added new information provided by PNB on Wednesday and estimated the total loss in the first FIR at Rs 6,498 crore.
The cumulative figure for the total loss to PNB thus stands close to Rs 11,400 crore.
CBI sources said that since the accused — Modi and his relatives — were rolling over the LoU money by way of getting them renewed, many old LoUs too have been renewed in 2017.The CBI on Friday questioned four PNB officials in connection with the case. Notably, they are all being probed for their dealings with Modi and his companies between 2014 and 2017.
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These included Bechu B Tiwari, chief manager of the Bank’s Nariman Point Branch in Mumbai between February 2015 and October 2017; Sanjay Kumar Prasad, current DGM of the bank and then AGM of Brady House Branch between May 2016 and May 2017; Mohinder K Sharma, then concurrent auditor between November 2015 and July 2017 and Manoj Kharat, then Single Window Operator holding office between November 2014 and December 2017.
CBI on Friday conducted raids at 26 locations across six cities in five different states in connection with the PNB scam case. ED too has searched 35 locations across 11 states in connection with the case and seized jewelry and diamonds worth Rs 549 crore. The searches were conducted at locations connected to Modi and Choksi. All premises searched by CBI are connected to companies owned by Mehul Choksi. The companies include Gitanjali Gems, Gili India, and Nakshatra Brand.
CBI sources said these three companies have 36 subsidiaries in India and abroad. The agency has carried out searches at premises connected to 18 subsidiaries in India. Of these 17 are in Mumbai and one in Hyderabad.
The searches were conducted in Maharashtra (Mumbai and Pune), Gujarat (Surat), Rajasthan (Jaipur), Telangana (Hyderabad) & Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore).
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Following the CBI FIR on Choksi, ED has also identified 29 immovable properties belonging to the accused. It has summoned Modi and Choksi to its Mumbai office on February 23. It has also got orders issued from Nirav Modi’s office that their subsidiaries and showrooms in Macau, Beijing, New York and London not make any further sales.
Meanwhile, a prosecution in the case of Nirav Modi has been filed under Income Tax Act for which hearing has been fixed on February 27. The Government said that the 105 bank accounts of Modi and his family and group concerns have been attached by the Income Tax department.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday suspended Nirav Modi’s passport.
MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that Nirav Modi will not be able to travel to any country as his passport has been suspended. “He will have to stay in whichever country he is living in right now.”
“I can say with confidence that this gentleman is not in touch with any of our officials and frankly at this stage, we are not aware of his location,” he added.
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