The revelation came to the fore during questioning by CBI officials of Rajesh Jindal, who was holding the charge of Mumbai-based PNB's Brady House Branch Head between August 2009 and May 2011, Gokul Nath Shetty, a retired Deputy Manager from the same branch who retired in May 2017, Bechu B. Tiwari (Chief Manager, in charge of Forex Department), Yashwant Joshi (Scale II manager of Forex Department) and Prafful Sawant (Scale I officer, export).
The officials questions said they merely continued with the practice which is said to have started in 2008. It was not immediately clear who was in charge of the Forex Department when the illegal practice began.
Latest Highlights Of Nirav Modi Fraud
1. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials said the alleged multi-crore fraud by issuing LOUs and FLCs for sanction of loan to diamantire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi's group of firms continued during Jindal's tenure. Jindal, posted as GM Credit at PNB's Head Office in New Delhi, was heading the second largest branch of the PNB when the practice of issuing the LoUs without sanctioned limits continued, reported IANS.
2. All five PNB officials arrested so far were part of the forex department at the bank's Brady House branch at the time of the fraud took place, said officials, adding these employees, in collaboration with the staff and associates of the firms headed by Nirav Modi and Choksi, committed wrongdoings for personal gains.
3. PNB's employee Tiwari, in his capacity as Chief Manager, was to monitor Shetty's transactions. However, Tiwari told the interrogators that during 2015-17, he did not monitor the fraudulent and illegal LoUs issued by Shetty.
4. The ED on Thursday said it has frozen mutual funds and shares worth Rs 94.52 crore of the Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi groups. It also seized nine high-end luxury cars of Modi as part of its investigation against him under the criminal provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). These include a Rolls Royce Ghost, a Mercedes Benz, a Porsche Panamera, three Honda variants, a Toyota Fortuner and an Innova. Officials of the agency said frozen mutual funds and shares worth Rs 86.72 crore belong to Choksi and his group, and the rest are owned by the Modi group.
5. CBI officials said details of additional amounts (of around Rs 6,400 crore) would be added to the first FIR. The second FIR also names 11 directors of the three Cholksi owned Gitanjali group companies-- Gitanjali Gems Ltd, Gili India Ltd and Nakshatra Brands Ltd. The PNB fraud came to light on January 16 when officials of Nirav Modi companies approached the bank for buyers' credit without collateral saying they had been getting such facility for years. The bank said that the official who had earlier allowed such illegal facility through LoUs and FLCs had retired by then, and on checking by officials, the whole fraud unravelled.
