The involvement of diamond merchant Nirav Modi in PNB 11,400 crore fraud case has been causing him a lot of trouble, his pains are far from over. On the fifth day of investigation the ED searched his Samudra Mahal apartments in Worli, South Mumbai. There along with cash, gold and precious gems, several other assets were seized. Fresh assets worth 22 crores were found which if added to the previous lot forms 5716 crores. Along with this search was conducted in 38 other locations including Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad, Thane, Kolkata, Delhi, Jammu, Lucknow, Bengaluru and Surat. Also Nirav Modi and Mehul Choski, promoter of Gitanjali Gems have been summoned on 23rd February at ED zonal office.
The agency is also talking to senior officials of PNB to understand how Letters of Understanding and other bank operations were carried on. Also, the agency has requested PNB audit reports from 2011 from the RBI.
The agency has attached several immovable assets under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Also, according to the officials they have seized several hard drives, data, documents and computer peripherals. The ED and Income Tax department zeroed at least twelve shell or dummy companies which were allegedly used by launderer to create benami assets in the form of land, gems or gold.
Ed chief Karnal Singh also flew to Mumbai to look into the anti-fraud investigations.
Central Vigilance Commissioner K. V. Chowdary met senior officials of PNB and Finance ministries in order to discuss the case. The commissioner wanted to understand the actions taken by Bank and managements in cases of fraud. The meeting lasted about two hours.
It seems we will just have to wait for more update regarding the perils of Nirav Modi.
