CBI questions CFO of Nirav's firm in Rs 321 cr loan default case

New Delhi: Top honchos of public sector banks have come under the scanner of the CBI in connection with alleged Rs 321.88 crore loan default case registered against billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, officials said on Monday.

The CBI on Monday questioned Ravi Shankar Gupta, the chief financial officer of Modi's company Firestar Diamonds International Limited in Mumbai, who is accused in the agency FIR in connection with the case, an official said.

The agency is grilling him to know how the loans were granted and how the diversion of funds happened besides the involvement of senior executives of the PSU banks.

The loans were given by two consortium of banks to the companies of Modi –Firestar International Pvt Ltd where Punjab National Bank is the lead bank and Firestar Diamonds International Pvt Ltd where Union Bank of India is the lead bank.

"There is a difference between the earlier case against Nirav Modi in which Letters of Undertaking were issued in fraudulent manner and this case where credit limits were sanctioned. In the case of LoUs, one can assume that it was handiwork of lower rung of employees but credit facilities are monitored by various senior-level officials," the official said.

The agency would call for questioning senior officials of the lending public sector banks to understand how monitoring was being done and what steps were taken to prevent the diversion of funds, the

official said.