Nirav gives PNB ‘repay’ plan, blue corner notice issued

CBI CONTINUED ITS PROBE, AND ARRESTED THE BANK’S CHIEF INTERNAL AUDITOR ON WEDNESDAY

NEWDELHI/MUMBAI: Under-fire diamond merchant Nirav Modi has given a ‘concrete proposal’ to Punjab National Bank (PNB) offering it jewellery worth ₹2,000 crore, current account deposits amounting to ₹200 crore and immovable properties of ₹50 crore to settle of his liabilities even as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) continued its probe, and arrested the bank’s chief internal auditor on Wednesday.

Modi wrote a letter to PNB on February 26, a source familiar with the matter said, saying the communication was in response to the bank’s letter asking to provide an implementable and concrete plan to return his dues. Modi’s offer comes at a time when the Bureau of Immigration issued a Blue Corner Notice against him and his uncle Mehul Choksi on Wednesday in connection with the ₹12,600-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case. The notice was issued on the request of the Income Tax department.

PNB has accused Modi and Choksi (who owns Gitanjali Jew- els) of committing a fraud of more than ₹12,600 crore in the issuance of Letters of Understanding and foreign letters of credit from the Brady House branch between 2011 and 2017.

A Blue Corner notice is issued to locate, identify or obtain information on a person of interest in a criminal investigation, and, in this case, will be valid for a year starting February 22 at all ports of embarkation. Meanwhile, the I-T department attached four more properties of the Nirav Modi group, including a ₹13 crore farm house in Alibaug – around 100 km south of Mumbai – and a 5.24MW solar power plant spread over 135 acres of land in Ahmednagar worth ₹70 crore, as per official records. Ahmednagar is around 270km east of Mumbai. The department also attached 34 more bank accounts and fixed deposits of the Gitanjali Group with a balance of ₹1.45 crore.