PNB fraud | Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi asked family, friends to hide gems worth thousands of crores

Diamond czar Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi had asked company directors and family members to hide precious gems worth thousands of crores of rupees, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has found in its probe into the Rs 11,400-core Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud.

They had done this, before fleeing India, foreseeing that probe agencies would carry out raids and seize their properties, said ED. The agency has been able to trace the hidden gems from their friends' places in raids and searches after deciphering a web of phones calls.

ED continued its crackdown against the two and their companies for the fourth day on Sunday and carried out raids at 45 places in 11 cities, including 10 in Bengaluru and seven in Delhi, besides Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Patna, Lucknow, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Guwahati.

So far, ED has conducted raids at 118 places and seized properties and assets worth around Rs 5,700 crore. "More than half of the places are of their friends and family members," said a source in ED.

ED is also moving to attach at least two dozen immovable properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). ED said that more than 200 shell companies were used to carry out transactions.

Sources said that most Letters of Undertaking and Foreign Letters of Credit were issued between 2017 and 2018 to commit fraudulent transactions.

On Sunday, the CBI questioned around half a dozen bank officials to unravel how the scam happened. The agency has arrested three accused — retired deputy manager Gokulchand Shetty, suspended single window operator Manoj Kharat and Hemant Bhat, the authorised signatory of the Nirav Modi group. All three accused are in CBI custody for 14 days.

Nirav, Choksi and others are being investigated by multiple probe agencies after it recently came to light, following a complaint by PNB, that they allegedly cheated the nationalised bank to the tune of Rs 11,400 crore, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank.