Tag: Nirav

PNB scam: PMLA court grants bail to Nirav Modi’s close aide

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Mumbai: A special PMLA court here on Tuesday granted bail to Subash Parab, a close aide of fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, in the multi-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case.
Parab was a deputy general manager (finance) at Firestar Diamond, a firm owned by Modi, and was deported to India from Cairo in Egypt in April 2022.
Special PMLA judge S M Menjonge allowed the Parab’s bail plea, citing that it appeared from the bail application that the accused was not beneficiary of the proceeds of crime.

Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are accused of duping PNB, a public sector bank, of Rs 13,000 crore using letters of undertaking (LoUs) and foreign letters of credit (FLCs) by bribing its officials at the Brady House branch in Mumbai.
Parab is understood to be a key witness to the letters of undertaking submitted to the bank to siphon off more than Rs 7,000 crore.
India had issued an Interpol Red Notice against Parab to track him down and bring him back.
In February, he was granted bail in a related case being probed by the CBI.
A LoU is a guarantee given by a bank to Indian banks having branches abroad for the grant of short-term credit to an applicant. In case of default, the bank issuing the LoU has to pay the liability.

The companies of Modi and Choksi took loans from banks abroad using the PNB’s LoUs, but did not repay them, thus transferring the liability to the bank.
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#PNB #scam #PMLA #court #grants #bail #Nirav #Modis #close #aide
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 18, 2023
Telangana: Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi don’t belong to BC community, says Uttam

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Hyderabad: Telangana senior congress leader and Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy clarified that Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi do not belong to the BC community, refuting the ‘false claims’ made by the BJP.
He expressed astonishment at the BJP’s attempts to garner sympathy for the two notorious ‘scamsters’ by wrongly associating them with the BC community.
He addressed a dharna of the BC Welfare Association organized by its Telangana State President, Jajula Srinivas Goud, at Jantar Mantar, Delhi on Wednesday.
“Nirav Modi is accused of defrauding Punjab National Bank of nearly Rs. 14,000 crore, while Lalit Modi allegedly embezzled thousands of crores from Indian cricket fans and tarnished the reputation of Indian cricket worldwide. Both scamsters are reportedly living a luxurious life somewhere in Europe. It is perplexing that the BJP would choose to use these controversial figures in their campaign, falsely associating them with the BC community,” he said.
Uttam Kumar Reddy endorsed the demand for a BC census in the country. He stated that the Congress party fully supports it at both the AICC and TPCC levels. He questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to the welfare of the BC community and asked why a BC Census has not been conducted, a demand made by BCs across the country.
He also emphasized the BC community’s long-standing demand for a separate ministry in the union government, similar to those for SC, ST, and Minority affairs. “The absence of such a ministry, despite the community’s requests for the past nine years, is quite astounding,” he said.
He also concurred with the BC Welfare Association’s demand for the removal of the creamy layer from the BC reservation quota.
Uttam Kumar Reddy asserted that the BC quota in jobs and education should be increased proportionately to their population, on par with SCs and STs.

He said that previous Congress governments implemented several measures to improve the lives of BCs at the national level and in the undivided Andhra Pradesh. He accused the BJP government of completely neglecting the welfare of the BC community in the last nine years.
However, he alleged that BJP leaders were misusing the name of the BC community to shield scamsters like Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi by disseminating false propaganda. “The BC community is both laughing at and shocked by the BJP’s propaganda tactics,” he said.
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#Telangana #Nirav #Modi #Lalit #Modi #dont #belong #community #Uttam
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 29, 2023
Nirav Modi claims he has no funds to pay UK court fines

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London: Nirav Modi, the fugitive diamond merchant wanted in India to stand trial on fraud and money laundering charges, has claimed that he has no funds and is resorting to borrowing money to pay the court-ordered legal costs amounting to more than 150,000 pounds.
The 52-year-old former billionaire last year lost his legal battle in the highest UK court against being extradited to India in the estimated USD 2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case. But his case is now said to be “statute barred”, indicating further pending litigation.
Meanwhile, Nirav remains behind bars at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London, from where he appeared via videolink for a hearing at Barkingside Magistrates’ Court in east London on Thursday over unpaid legal costs, or fines, of 150,247 pounds ordered by the High Court in London, related to his extradition appeal proceedings.
According to officials, the magistrates at a procedural hearing for court fines granted his plea to be allowed to pay 10,000 pounds a month before a review hearing to take place in six months’ time.
On being asked how he intended to finance the monthly amount, Nirav told the court he had been borrowing money as he did not have sufficient funds because his assets had been frozen in India over the extradition proceedings.
In December last year, a two-judge bench in the Royal Courts of Justice in London refused Nirav Modi’s application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court on suicide risk grounds and also refused his application to certify a point of law, which concluded his extradition appeal options in the UK courts.
This case may be subject to further litigation, UK Home Office sources have said, which is likely to indicate a parallel confidential political asylum appeals process.
In a final extradition appeal hearing in the case in the London High Court in November 2022, Justices Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay ruled that they were “far from satisfied that Mr Modi’s mental condition and the risk of suicide are such that it would be either unjust or oppressive to extradite him”.

Their verdict also accepted that the government of India will treat its assurances on Nirav’s medical care after being extradited and held at Barrack 12 of Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai with “appropriate seriousness”.
The dismissal of the appeal came three years after Nirav Modi was arrested in March 2019 on an extradition warrant based on Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) charges against the businessman.
There are three sets of criminal proceedings against the diamantaire in India the CBI case of fraud on the PNB which caused losses equivalent to over 700 million pounds, the ED case relating to the alleged laundering of the proceeds of that fraud and a third set of criminal proceedings involving alleged interference with evidence and witnesses in the CBI proceedings.
Then UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, had ordered Nirav’s extradition based on Judge Sam Goozee’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court ruling in April 2021.
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#Nirav #Modi #claims #funds #pay #court #fines
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 10, 2023
Court junks Nirav Modi sister’s plea for ED intervention in US bankruptcy matter

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Mumbai: A special court on Monday rejected a plea of Purvi Mehta, sister of fugitive diamond trader and PNB scam accused Nirav Modi, seeking a direction to the Enforcement Directorate to intervene in bankruptcy proceedings underway against him in the United States where she has been made a defendant.
In the plea, filed in April last year before the special court for cases under the Fugitive Economics Offenders (FEO) Act, Mehta (47) had said the ED should be directed to intervene in the case before a US court and seek injunction at least with respect to assets concerning her.
She has turned an approver in the bank fraud case filed under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Special judge S M Menjoge, after hearing prosecution and defence sides, rejected Mehta’s plea, saying there was no provision in the FEO Act by which the relief sought by her can be granted.
This court cannot prevent any person from prosecuting any matter either in India or outside the country, the judge observed.
Nirav Modi, a key accused in the Rs 13,000-crore scam at state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB), was declared a fugitive economic offender in December 2019. The 51-year-old diamantaire is currently lodged in a UK prison.
In June 2020, a special PMLA court in Mumbai ordered confiscation of his properties which the ED claimed had been bought using proceeds of crime.
In her plea, Mehta, who has turned an approver in the PMLA case against Nirav Modi and others, said she had been made a defendant in bankruptcy proceedings against her brother in a US court.

It means her properties are also being considered by the US court and its proceedings overlap with those in India related to her, Mehta’s plea had said.
The ED should be directed to intervene in the case before the US court, and seek an injunction at least with respect to assets concerning her, said the plea.
Lawyers representing PNB, which is the victim of the multi-crore fraud, submitted before the court that Mehta’s plea was not maintainable.
The ED also strongly objected to her plea, saying Mehta’s properties had been already attached as per provisions of the FEO Act.
There was no provision in the FEO Act to direct the central agency to intervene in US court proceedings, it told the court.
The special court, while rejecting Mehta’s plea, pointed out that she’s an approver in the PMLA case and not in this matter (filed under the FEO Act) and therefore she cannot claim be an interested party.
Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, owners of prominent jewellery firms, are accused of cheating the nationalized bank to the tune of Rs 13,000 crore by fraudulently obtaining Letters of Undertaking which act as bank guarantee while taking loans in foreign countries.
Purvi Mehta and her husband Maiank Mehta were made approvers in the bank fraud case in January 2021 on condition of making full and true disclosure before the PMLA court.
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#Court #junks #Nirav #Modi #sisters #plea #intervention #bankruptcy #matter
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 13, 2023
Give CBI access to offshore accounts, SC suggests to Nirav Modi’s brother-in-law

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday suggested that Mainak Mehta, brother-in-law of fugitive Nirav Modi, should consider providing the CBI a letter of authority to access his offshore bank accounts.
The CBI has alleged that Mehta has received a large sum of money siphoned off in the PNB fraud scam, where Modi is the key accused. The investigative agency also alleged that Mehta transferred the money to his and his wife’s offshore bank accounts.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud suggested Mehta’s counsel that he can give the letter of authority to an official designated by the CBI for accessing the bank details and the matter will end, and if not, then the court will have to take up CBI’s plea and decide it.
The CBI’s counsel submitted that Mehta had refused to give the letter of authority and as a result, the agency had to get letters rogatory (LRs) issued. “No response on LR has been received. We have written to the embassy (in Singapore) to pursue it,” counsel said.
The CBI’s counsel further argued that they apprehend that a huge amount of money has gone into those accounts and Mehra is a foreign national and his wife is a Belgian national, and once he leaves the country, he will not come back. Mehta is a British national who lives in Hong Kong with his family.
Senior advocate Amit Desai, representing Mehta, submitted that his client has been in India for a long time and he had always co-operated and false allegations have been made by the CBI. He added that his client is willing to give the letter of authority but then he will have to stay in India for another year, and emphasised that his client should be allowed to go for some time.
The top court noted that allowing Mehta to travel out of the country would mean the dismissal of the CBI’s appeal without a hearing and added that the court cannot compel Mehta to give the letter of authority to the CBI. After hearing arguments, the top court listed the matter for further hearing on February 9.
The apex court was hearing CBI’s plea challenging the August last year order of the Bombay High Court which had allowed Mehta to travel to Hong Kong and stay there for three months.

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#Give #CBI #access #offshore #accounts #suggests #Nirav #Modis #brotherinlaw
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 31, 2023