Acting on the advice of Enforcement Directorate (ED) the government has temporarily suspended the passports of jewellers and businessmen Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi in connection to the ₹11,300 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud.
“On the advice of the Enforcement Directorate, the passport issuing authority in the Ministry of External Affairs has today suspended the validity of passports of Nirav Deepak Modi and Mehul Chinubhai Choksi with immediate effect for a period of four weeks u/s 10(A) of the Passports Act 1967,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement here on Friday.
The MEA also said Modi and his partner Choksi have been asked to respond within one week as to why their passports should not be impounded or revoked under Section 10 (3) (c) of the Passports Act 1967.
“If they fail to respond within the stipulated time it will be assumed that they have no response to offer and the MEA will go ahead with the revocation,” said the statement.
Meanwhile, the ED seized jewelleries, gold, diamond, precious metal and stones at stock price of ₹5,100 crore in relation to the case late Thursday night and began independent valuation of each other items.
On the other hand, the CBI on Friday registered an FIR against Choksi and his Gitanjali Group of companies based on complaint of PNB dated February 13. The FIR named three of the companies owned by Choksi – Gitanjali Gems, Gili India and Nakshatra Brand Ltd., sources said.
The searches were carried on Gitanjali factories located at 20 places across six cities in five states. Searches were also made in factories belonging to Choksy and also on other directors of the accused companies and other group factories and plants including offices, factories and residences, sources added.
Searches were being conducted in Maharashtra (Mumbai and Pune), Gujarat (Surat), Rajasthan (Jaipur), Telangana (Hyderabad) and Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore).
The FIR has mentioned the alleged loss to PNB was at ₹4886.72 crores.
CBI sources said that accused PNB officials (Shetty and Karat) in conspiracy with private persons, sent unauthorised LoUs and Foreign Letters of Credit to overseas branches of Indian banks for release of funds to accused companies' suppliers or to clear liabilities of accused companies.
The CBI also lodged fresh FIR involving 143 LoUs and 224 Foreign letters of credit, which is separate from the earlier 150 LoUs relating to FIR dated January 31.