New Delhi: The CBI on Tuesday arrested Vipul Ambani and four other senior executives of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi’s companies in connection with its investigation into the alleged Rs 11,400-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.
Vipul Ambani is the chief finance officer of Modi’s Firestar Pvt Ltd. He is cousin of business tycoon Mukesh Ambani. The others arrested by the CBI are Kavita Mankikar and Arjun Patil of Modi’s firms and Kapil Khandelwal and Niten Shahi of the Gitanjali group, sources in the CBI said. The agency has already arrested six officers, including retired deputy manager Gokulchand Shetty, of the PNB in connection with the case.
The agency on Tuesday also questioned 10 PNB officers, including an executive director, in connection with the case. Besides, the CBI questioned eight senior executives of Modi’s firms and 10 of the Gitanjali group in connection with the case. During the questioning of three PNB officials —Bechhu Tiwari, Yashwant Joshi and Praful Sawant—arrested on Monday, it emerged that they were trying to shift the blame for the fraud on their colleagues — Gokuldas Shetty (retired official) and Manoj Kharat — arrested earlier, sources said.
Mr Choksi, his nephew Modi and others, are being investigated by multiple probe agencies after the fraud came to light following a complaint by the PNB.
The PNB claimed they cheated the state-run bank of Rs 11,400 crore with the involvement of a few employees of the bank. The CBI has registered two cases involving Modi and Choksi. These relate to fraudulent issuance of 150 Letters of Undertaking (LoU) (a kind of bank guarantee) worth Rs 6,498 crore and 143 LoUs worth Rs 4,886 crore. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also registered two separate cases to probe money laundering allegations against Choksi and Modi. An LoU is a guarantee which is given by the issuing bank to Indian banks having branches abroad to grant short-term credit to the applicant. In case of default, the bank issuing the LoU has to pay the liability to credit giving bank along with accruing interest.
The searches by another central probe agency ED continued even on Tuesday, with its chief Karnal Singh even cancelling his scheduled visit to France to attend a meeting of global anti-money laundering agencies so he could personally monitor the probe. “Assets worth Rs 10 crore were seized during searches at 13 premises linked to Modi and Choksi on Tuesday,” sources in the ED said.
Meanwhile, the Delhi high court on Tuesday directed the police to probe cheating allegations levelled against Gitanjali Gems promoter Mehul Choksi in an FIR lodged in 2016 by the owner of one of its retail franchisees, but protected him from any coercive action. There was an interim protection from coercive action against diamond merchant Choksi, which was extended till May 3.
