PNB fraud going on since 2010: CBI tells court

Mumbai: Violation of norms for issuance of Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) to benefit billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi had been going on since 2010, the CBI told a court here on Monday.

The agency, which secured a 12-day remand of four accused arrested yesterday, explained the modus operandi involved in the alleged Rs 12,636-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud before the special CBI court here.

An LoU would be issued to one of the firms of Modi and Choksi, and after the money was credited to the applicants' account, a new LoU would be obtained to "adjust" the earlier one, the CBI lawyer said.

This had been going on since 2010, the lawyer said, while seeking remand of four accused including Aniyath Shiv Raman Nair, Director of Gitanjali Group of Companies of Choksi.

Nair had signed various applications to avail the LoU facility, and he was also a director at 19 other companies of Mehul Choksi, the CBI lawyer said.

Manish K Bosamiya, then Assistant General Manager (Operation) of Firestar International Pvt Ltd (a Nirav Modi group firm), who was also produced before the CBI court, was responsible for day-to-day credit activities of the company, said the lawyer of the investigating agency.

Bosamiya was the one who was liaisoning with banks, especially PNB, for credit and disbursement, the CBI lawyer told the court. Bosamiya used to visit the Brady House branch of PNB here, the CBI lawyer said. It is from this branch that the alleged scam started.

Documents for LoUs were submitted on the instructions of Bosamiya, as per the information given by co-accused Arjun Patil (senior executive, Firestar) to the interrogators, the CBI said.