PNB fraud: CBI arrests three officers of Mumbai's Brady House branch; searches underway at their residences

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday arrested three officers of Punjab National Bank's (PNB) Mumbai branch in connection with Rs 11,384 crore banking fraud involving billionaire  jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.

The Brady House branch of the PNB in south Mumbai is at the centre of the scam.

These arrests are in addition to the earlier three arrests. The arrested officers are identified as Chief Manager (Forex department ) Bechhu Tiwari, Manager  Yashwant Joshi and Export officer Praful Sawant.

According to sources, Tiwari and Joshi both had the knowledge of Gokulnath Shetty's activities. Whereas, Sawant was responsible for checking the SWIFT messages daily.

The CBI team concluded the search operation at Brady House branch on Monday evening.

Meanwhile, the agency has begun searches at the residences of arrested officials located at Navi Mumbai, Andheri, Dombivili. 

Searches are also going on at the office of Nirav Modi group at Peninsula Business Park in Lower Parel.

Today, the investigators again went to the bank premises, removed the notice and continued their search operation, the official said.

The officials said that searches will not affect regular business of the branch since today is a holiday in Maharashtra on the occasion of the birth anniversary of king Chhatrapati Shivaji.

Last week, the CBI has arrested Gokulnath Shetty (retired DGM of PNB), bank's Single Window Operator Manoj Kharat and Hemant Bhat, the authorised signatory of the Nirav Modi Group of Firms.

Punjab National Bank scam was started in 2011 and was detected in the third week of January this year, after which the PNB officials reported it to the concerned agencies.

On January 31, the CBI registered an FIR against Nirav Modi, his companies and his uncle Mehul Choski.

The FIR has listed eight fraudulent transactions worth over Rs 280 crore but based on further complaints from the bank the CBI now says the amount investigated in the first FIR is over Rs 6,498 crore, involving 150 Letters of Understanding allegedly fraudulently issued by Shetty and Kharat.

The remaining 150 fraudulent LOUs worth over Rs 4,886 crore issued for Gitanjali group of companies are part of the second FIR registered yesterday by the agency against Choksi and his companies Gitanjali Gems, Nakshatra Brands and Gili, they said.