Liability much less, says Nirav’s ‘letter’
MUMBAI: A letter purportedly written by jeweller Nirav Modi, circulating on WhatsApp, claims that the ~11,000 crore liability cited by PNB in a loan fraud case is far higher than what is owed.
Mint couldn’t confirm the authenticity of the letter appar- ently written to PNB, but a person familiar with Modi’s legal strategy said it could be genuine.
Modi has appealed to the bank to support his efforts to repay debt. On January 31, the CBI had registered an FIR saying two PNB employees had colluded with companies linked to Modi in illegal transactions. In a subsequent note to the exchanges, PNB had said the transactions could be over ₹11,000 crore.
NEW DELHI: Central Vigilance Commission’s (CVC) chief KV Chowdary on Monday met senior officials of Punjab National Bank (PNB) to enquire how the ₹11,400 crore fraud, allegedly involving jewellery designer Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, went undetected for almost seven years.
The meeting of the PNB top management with Chowdary and vigilance commissioner TM Bhasin lasted for almost two hours. Finance ministry officials were also present in the meeting. The chief vigilance commissioner and his colleague asked the PNB to submit a report in this regard, said a person familiar with the discussions who asked not to be named.
“The CVC asked about non-linking of the Core Banking System of the bank with the SWIFT system (a messaging system used for inter-bank transactions) at PNB,” the person said.
The CBI has said that due to non-linking of Core Banking system with the SWIFT system, bank officials in connivance with Nirav Modi’s companies managed to perpetuate the alleged fraud and keep it hidden.
The bank officials informed the CVC about the action taken after the detection of fraud and the steps taken against officials who did not perform their supervisory roles, said the person.
Besides meeting the PNB and finance ministry officials, the CVC also met a superintended of police of Bank Security and Fraud Cell of the CBI.