PNB’s Mumbai Branch Sealed Amid Fraud

MUMBAI:
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday sealed the Mumbai branch of Punjab National Bank (PNB) at the centre of a Rs 11,300 crore fraud involving billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, officials said on Monday.
Three people including two employees of PNB, the country’s second largest state lender, have been arrested in the biggest fraud case in the country’s banking history. The CBI is also questioning Vipul Ambani, the Chief Financial Officer of diamantaire Nirav Modi’s Fire Star diamond company, officials said.
The CBI on Sunday started an intensive search operation at the Brady road branch of PNB in Mumbai, where the fraud originated, involving billionaire jewellers Nirav Modi and his business partner and uncle Mehul Choksi.
The agency continued interrogating two PNB officials and an authorised signatory of Nirav Modi’s company, officials said. The probe agency has also started interrogating five more officials, including general manager level officers, taking the total number of officials facing questioning to 11.
CBI officials said the agency is continuing the questioning of arrested bank officials — Gokulnath Shetty (retired) and Manoj Kharat, and the signatory of Nirav Modi’s company — along with other officials of PNB, to trace the money trail and depth of the alleged scam involving thousands of documents and digital records.
It isn’t just public sector banks that have taken a hit from loans and guarantees to diamond firms run by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. As many as 24 companies and 18 businessmen, who had taken franchise of their jewellery brand between 2013 and 2017, have filed criminal complaints of financial bankruptcy due to breach and fraud committed by the two.