Non-bailable warrant issued against Nirav Modi, Choksi

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India] March 03 (ANI): A special court on Saturday issued a non-bailable warrant against Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi in connection with the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.

The warrants were issued by the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court against the main accused celebrity jeweller Nirav Modi and his relative Mehul Choksi, who owns Gitanjali Gems.

Meanwhile, Vijay Aggarwal, Nirav Modi's lawyer has said that the Non-Bailable Warrant (NBW) will be challenged in the High Court.

"We are considering to challenge the order in the High Court on behalf of Nirav Modi. But final decision shall be taken only upon seeing the order. We have not even been given a copy of application that ED filed," he told ANI.

In another development, The CBI produced 6 accused before the special CBI court seeking police custody for Gokulanath Shetty and judicial custody for the other 5.

On February 28, it arrested an Internal Chief Auditor of the Punjab National Bank (PNB). The arrested Auditor M.K. Sharma was allegedly responsible for auditing the systems and practices of the PNB in Brady House Branch.

Earlier, the CBI had arrested five PNB officials in the case, including a General Manager (GM) rank officer of the PNB and Gokulnath Shetty, former deputy manager of PNB.

Apart from these arrests, India's premier investigation agency has also arrested officials of Nirav Modi' and Choksi's companies.

On February 20, The CBI arrested five high profile accused: Vipul Ambani, president, finance, Firestar International Pvt Ltd.; Kavita Mankikar, executive assistant and authorised signatory of the three accused firms, Arjun Patil, senior executive, Firestar group; Kapil Khandelwal, CFO, Nakshatra group; and Niten Shahi, manager, Gitanjali.

The PNB scam is being termed as one the biggest bank frauds in India.

On February 27, the CBI said that the PNB has reported fresh scam of Rs. 1251 crore by Gitanjali Gems.

In a statement, the CBI said, "The PNB has informed us that further scam of Rs 1,251 crore has been detected with respect to Gitanjali Gems. The CBI is now probing Rs. 12,636 crore in the PNB scam, up from Rs 11,421 crore."

On February 28, Nirav Modi refused to join the CBI probe in connection with multi-crore PNB fraud case.(ANI)