Mumbai: The special Enforcement Directorate (ED) court on Monday extended the judicial custody of accused Vipul Ambani, Rajesh Jindal, Kavita Mankikar, Arjun Patil, Nitin Shahi and Kapil Khandelwal in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam till April 2.
All the accused were produced before special judge S.R. Tamboli on Monday after their judicial custody ended. Advocate A. Limosin submitted a remand application before the judge and requested the court to extend the judicial custody of these accused for a further period of fourteen days.
The ED counsel reiterated the alleged roles played by the accused in thousands of crores of rupees in PNB fraud case involving jeweller Nirav Modi and businessman Mehul Choksi.
The lawyer also argued that the accused are highly influential and could tamper with the witnesses and the evidence and hence they should not be released on bail.
After hearing arguments, the judge extended the judicial custody of all the accused. It may be recalled that Ambani had challenged his arrest by the agency before the Bombay high court, contending that due procedure was not followed in arresting him and he was kept in illegal custody before his official arrest.
Ambani was president, finance, at the Modi-controlled Firestar Group of Companies.
