Five of the 29 properties of Nirav Modi attached by the Income Tax Department either do not belong to the billionaire diamond seller or never existed.
Five of the 29 properties of Nirav Modi attached by the Income Tax Department either do not belong to the billionaire diamond seller or never existed.
The Indian Express reported that two days after the amount of fraudulent transaction was revised to Rs 11,400 crore by the PNB on February 16, the IT department provisionally attached 29 properties and 105 bank accounts of Modi, his family, and companies.
At least three properties in Mumbai and Delhi was never owned by Nirav Modi or any of his companies. The IE report says Modi’s showroom, located at ITTS House in Kala Ghoda in South Mumbai and attached by the tax agency, is owned by Mumbai-based businessman Varij Sethi and his family members.
An executive close to the Sethi family, who spoke to the newspaper, revealed that Modi, had taken the Kala Ghoda space on leave and licence from the Sethis for the last three years. Now, the owners are approaching the tax department to release the attached property.
Citing sources the report also says that the corporate office of Firestar Diamond at Trade Point building in Kamala Mills in Mumbai and Modi’s boutique in New Delhi's Defence Colony were also taken on leave and licence from their owners.
On Monday, CBI questioned a general manager of Punjab National Bank, who handles the treasury section, in connection with the alleged Rs 12,636-crore fraud perpetrated by billionaire jeweler and his uncle Mehul Choksi, officials said.
The questioning came a day after the CBI arrested four people -- two employees and an auditor of Nirav Modi's group of companies, and a director of Gitanjali Group of Companies.
It is alleged that Choksi and Modi got Letters of Undertakings (LoUs) and Foreign Letters of Credit (FLCs) of Rs 12,636 crore issued in favour of foreign branches of Indian banks based on fraudulent claims.
The accused officials of PNB did not enter the instructions for these LoUs and in their internal software to avoid scrutiny.
They were sent through an international messaging system for banking called SWIFT, which is used to pass instructions among banks globally to transfer funds.
An LoU is a guarantee which is given by an issuing bank to Indian banks having branches abroad to grant short-term credit to the applicant.
In case of default, the bank issuing the LoU has to pay the liability to the credit giving bank along with accruing interest.
The PNB officials allegedly sent these messages to Indian banks -- Canara Bank, State Bank of India, Bank of India, Axis Bank, Allahabad Bank -- located in Antwerp, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Mauritius, Frankfurt without making entries in the banking software about the LoUs.
Upon receiving the messages from PNB under SWIFT, the banks abroad transferred these amounts into Nostro account of PNB with them.
Nostro account is an account that a bank holds in a foreign currency in another bank to enable foreign trade by its clients.
(With PTI inputs)