IT dept issues notice to Abhishek Singhvi's wife for unaccounted money paid to Nirav Modi: Report

Amid ongoing row over Punjab National Bank's (PNB) fraud, the Income-Tax department has issued a notice to Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi's wife.

According to reports, the notice was issued to Singhvi's wife Anita for unaccounted money paid to jeweller Nirav Modi.

State-owned PNB has been rocked by the fraud involving Nirav Modi who allegedly acquired fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) from a branch in Mumbai to secure overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

Last week, Abhishek Singhvi denied any links of his family with jewellery designer Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Group promoter Mehul Choksi and charged the BJP with playing 'cheap politics'.

"BJP/NDA's cheap sense of politics has reached ludicrous and ridiculous proportions. Neither My wife, sons nor me have anything whatsoever to do with Gitanjali or Nirav Modi companies," he said in a statement.

Singhvi said Nirav Modi’s company was a tenant of a Kamla Mills property owned by Adwait Holdings in which his wife and sons are directors.

BJP leader and Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had alleged that Nirav Modi-run Firestar Diamond International had taken on lease a property of Adwait Holdings, a company in which Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi's wife is a director.
"None of us have anything to do even remotely with

Gitanjali company, Firestar or any other business of Nirav modi. Sensationalism, ignorance and falsehood has exceeded all limits in this irresponsible charge," he said, threatening Sitharaman and her colleagues of civil and criminal defamation for making "ill-considered, ignorant and patently false allegations".

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.

These arrests are in addition to the earlier three arrests.

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.

(With agency inputs)