PNB fraud: Supreme Court to hear PIL seeking deportation of Nirav Modi today

The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear a Public interest litigation (PIL) seeking deportation of businessman Nirav Modi, main accused in the over Rs 11000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.

The PIL has been filed by lawyer Vineet Dhanda, which seeks Modi's deportation within two months.

Niravi Modi and Gitanjali Gems Chairman and Managing Director Mehul Choksi, who are the main accused in the scam left India in January.

Meanwhile, CBI on Tuesday night arrested a General Manager (GM) rank officer of Punjab National Bank (PNB), Rajesh Jindal, who was holding the charge of Branch Head  at PNB Brady House branch in Mumbai during August 2009 to May 2011. During his tenure at PNB Brady House branch, the practice of issuance of LOUs without sanctioned limits to Nirav Modi group firms was started. He is currently posted as GM Credit at PNB Head Office in New Delhi.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are probing the ongoing matter and conducting searches and raids at various locations linked with Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems.

Earlier, in a huge setback to PNB banking scam prime accused Nirav Modi, the Ministry of External Affairs on Friday suspended his passport for four weeks.

The move came on the advice of the Enforcement Directorate. Apart from the designer diamond jeweller, the authorities have also suspended the passport of Mehul Choksi.

The foreign ministry suspended the validity of their passports with immediate effect for a period of four weeks under Section 10(A) of the Passports Act 1967.

Both Modi and Choksi have been asked to respond within one week as to why their passports should not be impounded or revoked under Section 10 (3) (c) of the Passports Act 1967.

If they fail to respond within the stipulated time it will be assumed that they have no response to offer and the Ministry of External Affairs will go ahead with the revocation.

The 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.

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.

(With ANI inputs)