An official of Punjab National Bank received gold and diamond jewellery from a billionaire jeweller accused of being involved in a $2bn bank fraud, the Central Bureau of Investigation told a court yesterday.
The bank in January uncovered the alleged fraud in which several bank officials were suspected of colluding with jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi to issue fraudulent letters of undertakings (LoUs), for their companies to raise loans from overseas branches of mostly Indian banks.
The CBI, which has arrested 14 people in the case, yesterday for the first time said bribes were paid to at least one PNB official by Modi.
The agency told the court that Yashwant Joshi, who worked as a manager in the forex department of the Mumbai branch that is at the centre of the fraud, admitted to having received two gold coins weighing 60g and a pair of gold and diamond earrings from Modi.
The articles have been recovered from Joshi’s house in the presence of independent witnesses, the CBI said.
“This indicates that he was in collusion with the beneficiary accused persons to cheat the bank,” CBI inspector D Damodaran said in a court filing.
“He also obtained illegal gratification from the beneficiary party for continuing issuance of fraudulent LoUs.”
Joshi, who was committed to judicial custody by the Mumbai court along with four other PNB officials and an associate of Modi, could not be contacted for comment.
Modi and Choksi, who owns Gitanjali Gems Ltd, left India before the fraud came to light, but have said in letters and statements they were innocent.
PNB, India’s second-biggest state lender, has mainly accused two low-level employees of the Brady House branch of issuing the LoUs without making corresponding entries in the bank’s main software, helping the fraud to go undetected for years.
The CBI, however, has expanded its investigation and arrested two internal auditors of the branch, among others.
Separately, TV channels reported that another Mumbai court yesterday issued non-bailable warrants against Modi and Choksi following an appeal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the agency focused on foreign exchange and money laundering offences.
“Modi appears to be the prima donna in the whole saga of the fraud perpetrated on the PNB,” the ED said in a filing to the court.
“The case involves a circuitous web of routes created by the said Modi and in such circumstances, the fraudulent transactions appear to be in the personal knowledge and exclusive domain of Nirav Modi”.
CBI officials escort Gokulnath Shetty, one of the Punjab National Bank employees accused of steering fraudulent loans to companies linked to Nirav Modi, outside a court in Mumbai, yesterday.
