PNB scam: ED asks Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi to appear before it on February 22

The Rs 11,400-crore PNB fraud revolves around Nirav Modi

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has fixed a date for Nirav Modi and his business partner-uncle Mehul Choksi - they have been asked to come to ED's office in Ballard Pier on February 22 for questioning in the Rs 11,400-crore scam. Officers said if they failed to appear, the agency would initiate further legal action against them. They added that as per their information, Nirav is an Indian citizen and they had requested revocation of his passport. When asked if he holds passport of another country, they said they would have to check.

Mehul Choksi

Assets seized
The ED yesterday continued its raids, covering 10 places in the city, apart from others across the country over the last many days; a total of 39 places was raided on Monday and booty worth R22 crore was seized. So far, the agency has seized assets worth Rs 5,716 crore. Officers said they have begun the process of valuation of the seized items. Besides seizing assets, the ED has also been searching for proceeds of crimes, and examining data. It has asked the Income Tax Department for data of shell companies linked to the case. An officer said that even though they were collecting information from various places, the actual investigation would take a lot of time, adding that the seizure of assets and papers was to not give time to the accused to clean up. Further in the probe, the ED will be asking for the auditors' report from the bank and attaching accused' properties.

Questioning continues
Both the CBI and ED, which have filed two separate cases, are recording statements of various people in the case. The CBI is currently questioning the three arrested accused - retired deputy manager Gokulnath Shetty, single-window operator Manoj Kharat, and Hemant Bhatt, authorised signatory for Diamonds R US, Stellar Diamonds and Solar Exports, all owned by Nirav. Yesterday, it also questioned Vipul Ambani, chief financing officer of Nirav's Firestar International. The ED, meanwhile, summoned PNB officials for investigation and was also questioning a senior official to understand the process of checks and balances. As per ED officers, letters of undertaking (LOUs) were not accounted in the book of accounts. They are trying to find out how the money laundering was done. The first LOU was issued in March 2011.

Also read: PNB Scam: CBI Seals Bank's South Mumbai Branch, Reopens It After Public Outcry

Three more arrested
The CBI has arrested three more officials of PNB's branch in Brady House, Fort, in the Nirav Modi scam - Bechhu Tiwari, chief manager, in-charge of the forex department, who was responsible for supervising the work of Gokulnath Shetty and his manager to ensure entry of authorised SWIFT messages only from the system, Yashwant Joshi, scale II manager, forex department, also responsible for supervising Shetty and ensure daily reports of SWIFT and CBS entries, and Praful Sawant, scale I officer, export, who was responsible for checking SWIFT messages daily and report. Officers said the trio had full knowledge of what Shetty was up to, and yet, they chose to keep quiet about it. They added that searches have begun at their residences in Navi Mumbai, Andheri and Dombivli. While the search at the branch in Brady House has concluded, more at offices of Nirav Modi Group in Peninsula Business Park, Lower Parel, are on.

'5,716 cr
Total worth of assets seized so far

'22 crore
Worth of assets seized on Monday

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