PNB fraud case: Vipul Ambani, CFO of Nirav Modi firm, and 4 others arrested by CBI

The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Vipul Ambani and four other senior executives of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi’s companies on Tuesday in a Rs 11,400-crore loan fraud case at a Mumbai branch of the Punjab National Bank, a spokesperson for the agency said.

Vipul Ambani is president (finance) of billionaire jeweller Modi’s Firestar International company. The others arrested are Arjun Patil, a senior executive of Firestar and Kavita Mankikar, executive assistant and authorised signatory of three firms cited by PNB in the case-- Diamonds R US, Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds .

The CBI has also arrested Kapil Khandelwal, chief financial officer of Nakshatra (a Gitanjali group company) and Niten Shahi, a manager with the group, added the spokesperson. Choksi, Modi’s maternal uncle, heads the Gitanjali group.

The investigating agency earlier questioned 10 PNB officials and 18 employees of Modi’s companies and the Gitanjali group in the bank fraud case. The CBI so far has arrested 11 persons , including five PNB employees in the case.

Modi and firms linked to him are alleged to have acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from one PNB branch in Mumbai between 2011 and 2017 to obtain loans from Indian banks overseas, according to a first information report registered by CBI on a complaint by PNB. It also names Modi’s maternal uncle Choksi and three others. CBI also filed another first information report again Choksi and Gitanjali alleging that fraudulent transactions to the tune of Rs 4886 crore were carried out with the help of PNB officials.

With inputs from agencies