Even as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is trying to unravel the Rs 12,636-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths are making their best efforts to locate the parked money by fraud perpetrators — billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi.
The CBI grilled a general manager, SK Chand, who handles the treasury section of PNB, on Monday to find out how the fraud was carried out by the accused and why the bank officials could not smell the ill-doings even after there have been layers of security check. The agency is "clueless where the money taken as loan by the fraudsters have been parked" and how swiftly they have managed to get loans through Letters of Undertaking and Foreign Letters of Credit.
To know where money has been parked, the ED has written to counterparts of various countries to trace the money trail. The agency is probing whether Modi and Choksi have parked the ill-gotten money in Belgium-based companies — Nirav Modi Ltd and Nirav Modi Jewels BVBA — that was floated in Antwerp, Belgium in 2013. The agency said that Modi was born in Antwerp where his father Deepak Modi had set up a shop in 1960s and he has reportedly parked money over there.
As part of the agency's probe against the two accused and their group of companies, the ED said it has till now has conducted 198 searches across the country leading to the "seizure" of gold, diamond, platinum, silver, precious and semi-precious stones, jewellery and watches of "stock value" of more than Rs 6200 crore. The agency had said it is independently valuing these assets.
The CBI and the ED have registered two FIRs each to probe the case. Both Choksi and Modi are said to have left the country before criminal cases were lodged against them. They have, however, denied any wrongdoing.
Fraud since 2010
- Violation of norms for issuance of LoUs to benefit billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi had been going on since 2010, the CBI told a Mumbai court on Monday.
- The agency, which secured a 12-day remand of four accused arrested on Sunday, also explained the modus operandi involved in the alleged Rs 12,636-crore PNB fraud before the special CBI court.
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