Passports of Nirav Modi, Choksi revoked; CBI questions PNB top officials

New Delhi, February 24

The passports of diamantaire Nirav Modi and owner of Gitanjali Gems Mehul Choksi, the main accused in the Rs 11,400-crore PNB scam, have been revoked, external affairs ministry sources said on Saturday, even as the CBI examined Punjab National Bank's Managing Director and CEO Sunil Mehta and its Executive Director K V Brahmaji Rao.

The PNB MD and Executive Director are not being treated as accused, the officials said.

Read:ED attaches houses, land worth Rs 523 crore of Nirav Modi group

Meanwhile, on the advice of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the ministry had suspended the validity of passports of Nirav Modi and Choksi with immediate effect for a period of four weeks on February 16 and given one week's time to them to respond as to why their passports should not be impounded or revoked.

"Since they have not responded so far, their passports have been revoked," a senior ministry source said, noting that in its notice to Modi and Choksi, the ministry had made it clear that their passports would be cancelled if they failed to respond.

Ministry sources said future course of action will be taken on the advice of the investigation agencies.

Modi, Choksi and others are being investigated by multiple probe agencies after the fraud came to light recently following a complaint by the Punjab National Bank.

The complaint alleged that they cheated the nationalised bank to the tune of Rs 11,400 crore, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED have registered two FIRs each to probe the case. Both Modi and Choski are said to have left the country before the criminal cases were lodged against them.

Meanwhile, CBI officials said the examination of PNB MD and its ED is focussed on understanding how the crime was detected by the bank and other procedural issues and their violations.

It has been alleged that fraudulent guarantees were issued to the uncle-nephew duo of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi through 293 Letters of Undertakings.

Refusing to give out any further details, the officials said the agency is also questioning the 12 accused arrested by the agency so far.

They said this is the first time the agency has examined the top brass of the Punjab National Bank in connection with the fraud, which remained undetected state for over six years, shaking up the banking system of the country.

According to the website of the PNB, Rao is in-charge of the integrated risk management division, credit (operations), monitoring of accounts with exposure of above Rs 50 crore, including stock audit and Portfolio Management Service (PMS), industrial rehabilitation and action taken on borrowal frauds reported from Mumbai, where the alleged fraud took place.

Rao started his banking career in Vijaya Bank in the year 1982 as a Probationary Officer, it said.

Mehta started his banking career as an agriculture field officer at the Allahabad Bank in 1982.

The CBI has so far arrested 12 accused in the case.

Vipul Ambani, president (finance) of  Fire Star Diamond, executive assistant Kavita Mankikar and senior executive Arjun Patil (all from Nirav Modi's companies) were arrested on Tuesday.

Kapil Khandelwal, CFO of Nakshatra group and Gitanjali group, and Niten Shahi, manager of Gitanjali group, were also arrested by the agency the same day. An authorised signatory of Nirav Modi's company was also arrested.

From the PNB, the agency had arrested Rajesh Jindal, a general manager, retired official Gokulnath Shetty and Single Window Operator Manoj Kharat, besides three other officials -- Bechhu Tiwari, Yashwant Joshi and Praful Sawant.

Shetty and Kharat allegedly sent messages of the LoUs using an international messaging system for banking systems called SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), which is used to pass instructions among banks globally to transfer funds, but did not make entries in the bank's system to avoid detection.

Based on these instructions and guarantees, funds were released by overseas branches of Indian banks.

It is alleged that Rs 11, 400 crore of LoUs were fraudulently issued to the firms of Nirav Modi and Choksi. — PTI