The top brass of the scam-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) were questioned at the bank’s head office by Income Tax sleuths pursuing the ₹11,400-crore Nirav Modi scam.
Senior income tax officials quizzed PNB’s Managing Director Sunil Mehta and the Executive Directors at the bank’s swank new head office at Dwarka on Tuesday, sources close to the developments said.
As many as seven law enforcement agencies are now pursuing various leads in the ‘Letter of Undertaking’ scam involving diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, among other relatives.
Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Rajesh Jindal, a General Manager rank officer currently posted at the PNB Head Office in the capital.
Jindal was the head of the Brady House branch (during 2009-11), which is at the centre of the scam for fraudulent issuance of Letters of Undertaking between 2011 and 2017.
PIL for court monitoring
The Supreme Court on Wednesday set March 16 as the next date of hearing in the public interest litigation (PIL) seeking a court-monitored probe into the role of PNB’s top management and also seeking the deportation of Nirav Modi, the main accused in the fraud.
The government on Wednesday opposed the PIL, filed by lawyer Vineet Dhanda.
DFS meeting?
With the recent IBA meeting becoming a stormy affair among member banks following disagreement on who should foot the ₹11,400-crore bill, indications are that the Department of Financial Services may step in to resolve the impasse on this front.
The DFS is considering calling a meeting of PNB and all the other Indian banks (SBI, Allahabad Bank, Axis Bank, Union Bank) who had exposure to Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi firms, it is learnt.
PTI adds: The government must get a free hand to probe the PNB fraud case, the Supreme Court said.
The top court said it would step in only if the agencies fail to carry out the investigation properly. The Centre, represented by Attorney General KK Venugopal, vehemently opposed the PIL seeking an independent probe and the deportation of Nirav Modi, before a Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra.
“The inquiry has started and the FIRs have been registered,” Venugopal said.
“If the government does not do things that are required, then you (petitioner) can come. It is not that the government agencies are not acting,” the Bench, comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, said, adding that the government must have “a free hand” to probe the scam.
Lawyer Vineet Dhanda, the petitioner, said that either notice should be issued or a status report called from the Centre as “the whole country was watching that the government had not done anything” in the past in a similar case relating to erstwhile liquor baron Vijay Mallya.
“Speeches have no impact on the court. We will hear the legal issue and not the emotional aspect,” the bench said.
“This is not the way you argue a petition. The purpose is to gain publicity,” it added.
The court took serious note of the intervention by Dhanda when Venugopal was putting forth the stand of the Centre.
“These are publicity-oriented litigations,” the Bench said, adding that the petitioner lawyer was “playing to the gallery”.