Trouble is mounting for Punjab National Bank (PNB) top brass with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) widening the probe into the Rs 11,400 crore fraud and arresting PNB General Manager Rajesh Jindal.
The CBI has also sealed a farmhouse of Nirav Modi spread across 1.5 acres which has a palatial bungalow measuring 12,000 square metres at Alibaug, 100 km from Mumbai.
According to the CBI, the farmhouse worth Rs 35 crore is in the name of Nirav, who used it for hosting special parties for his clientele to showcase his precious jewellery collection.
The Income-Tax Department has attached a total of 141 bank accounts and FDs, valued at Rs 145 crore, of the Nirav Modi group.
In a related development, Attorney of Nirav Modi on Wednesday reiterated that his client was not an absconder and questioned as to on what basis he has been branded as a fugitive.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to intervene in the PNB loan scam investigation and decided to defer hearing on a PIl on the issue till March 16. As the Centre opposed the PIl, the Bench said it will allow investigation into the matter to go on and will not interfere with the same.
Explaining about the arrest, CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said Jindal during his tenure had allowed issuance of letters of Undertaking without sanctioned limits to Nirav Modi group firm. Jindal has been remanded till March 5. He was arrested in Mumbai following questioning for two consecutive days. Meanwhile, the CBI said it has no information about reports of Nirav having two passports “illegally”.
Insiders say that the CBI is unable to understand the modus operandi adopted by the billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle to cheat the PNB of Rs 11,400 crores. The three top arrested employees of Modi were unable to explain the investigators about the modus operandi used by their employer. They were unable to explain before the investigators the way Modi managed to get loUs and Foreign letters of Credit from the PNB. However, the CBI found that Modi had managed officers of PNB Head Office in Delhi and on regular basis used to send them to Delhi for courtesy call. According to sources, the modus operandi and the role of three top Modi’s employees into the scam has not yet been established by the CBI following which the agency sought 14 days remand.
According to CBI officials, Jindal was heading the second largest branch of the PNB while issuing the loUs without sanctioned limits to diamond trader Modi’s firms between August 2009 and May 2011. He was presently posted as General Manager Credit at PNB’s head office in New Delhi. His arrest was the 14th in the fraud case so far. The CBI also confirmed that 10 more officials of the public sector lender, including the bank’s executive directors, were being questioned, without giving out their names.
During investigation, it was found that the PNB management had suspended several officials who were in charge of this branch since 2011. These include current General Manager Rajesh Jindal who was branch in-charge in 2011. PNB has also suspended another General Manager Anil Bansal who was circle head of the bank in 2015 and cancelled Gokulnath Shetty’s transfer order because of which Shetty remained in the Brady House Branch for seven years and issued more than 100 loUs to Nirav Modi and his companies. Besides them, the agency officials would also continue to examine the executive level officials of Choksi’s Gitanjali Group.
The CBI has also got custody of three top employees of Modi and two employees of Gitanjali Gems, whose chairman was Mehul Choksi, till March 5. The CBI had arrested Vipul Ambani, Vice President finance , Kavita Mankikar, Executive Assistant, and Arjun Patil, senior executive of Firestar Diamond International Pvt, and Kapil Khandelwal, Chief Finance Officer, and Niten Shahi, manager of Naksharta and Gitanjali Gems group.
On the other hand, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) continued its raids on the seventh day on Wednesday as it visited 17 locations across the country, including four shell companies in Mumbai, in connection with its money laundering probe in the PNB fraud. The agency has so far seized diamonds, gold jewellery and other precious stones worth Rs 5,726 crore in the case and summoned Modi and Choksi to appear before it this week at its Mumbai zonal office.
Earlier, the ED sleuths continued to tighten the noose against the suspected shell or bogus firms linked to the Nirav Modi, his uncle and Gitanjali Gems promoter Mehul Choksi and others. ED teams raided four locations of such firms in the Opera House, Peddar road, Goregaon (East) and Powai areas of the Maharashtra capital.