PNB Scam: Enforcement Directorate nabs Mehul Choksi aide Deepak Kulkarni at Kolkata airport

Officials of the Enforcement Branch (ED) on Tuesday arrested Deepak Kulkarni, an aide of fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport as soon as he reached Kolkata from Hong Kong. Kulkarni was produced at the court on Tuesday and got a transit remand till November 12.

A lookout notice had already been issued against him by the ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and when he landed in Kolkata on Tuesday morning, he was stopped by officials of the immigration department and later on handed over to ED.

The ED officials said that arresting Kulkarni was a major development and officials of the Central agency believed that by interrogating him, more information regarding the PNB fraud would be unearthed.

Kulkarni was booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Act.

Kulkarni, who had been named in the chargesheet filed by ED, was the director of one of Choksi's dummy firms based in Hong Kong. A non-bailable warrant had also been issued against him by the Mumbai court.

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are the key accused in the Rs13,400 crore PNB fraud case. Several cases are pending in their names in this fraud but before any step could be taken against them they fled the country.

During investigation, ED officials had attached properties worth several hundred crore belonging to the two across many places in India, including Kolkata and Mumbai.