The bail plea of fugitive diamonds trader Mehul Choksi, wanted in India in connection with over Rs 6300-crore fraud in the Punjab National Bank (PNB), has again been turned down by a court of appeal in Belgium, just ahead of his extradition hearing before a court in that country, officials said. The court rejected the appeal on strong reasons conveyed by the CBI to the Belgian prosecution that Choksi had escaped from many jurisdictions earlier as well to evade legal proceedings and may flee to another country if let out on bail, they said.
Markets regulator Sebi has ordered the attachment of bank accounts and shares and mutual fund holdings of absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi to recover dues totalling Rs 2.1 crore in a case of violation of insider trading rules in the shares of Gitanjali Gems.
The government had moved NCLT to freeze the assets of 19 people after CBI filed a charge sheet in Nirav Modi's case and Gitanjali Group cases.
The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth over Rs 14 crore belonging to the Gitanjali Group and its promoter and jeweller Mehul Choksi, one of the prime accused in the alleged over Rs 13,000 crore PNB loan fraud case. The properties attached, under the anti-money laundering law, include a flat measuring 1,460 sq feet located at O2 Tower in Goregaon area of Mumbai, gold and platinum jewellery, diamond stones, necklaces made of silver and pearls, watches and a Mercedes Benz car, the ED said in a statement. A provisional order for attachment has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for the assets worth a total Rs 14.45 crore that are in the name of Gitanjali Group of companies and its director Mehul Choksi, it said.
She was the managing director and the CEO of PNB since August 14, 2015 before being appointed in Allahabad Bank on May 6, 2017.
It has also attached fresh 66 banks accounts, holding deposits of Rs 80.07 crore, of the Gitanjali group, owned by Modi's uncle Mehul Choksi.
Choksi, along with his nephew and millionaire designer jeweller Nirav Modi, is being investigated by the ED for allegedly defrauding PNB, the country's second largest lender.
Sebi has barred fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi and one Rakesh Girdharlal Gajera from the capital markets for one year and levied a fine totalling Rs 2.5 crore on them for violating insider trading rules in the matter of Gitanjali Gems. In addition, they have been restrained from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in securities of Gitanjali Gems Ltd (GGL) for a period of two years. Also, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has directed Gajera to disgorge a sum of Rs 15.82 crore.
The I-T department also attached 34 bank accounts and fixed deposits, valued at Rs 1.45 crore, of the Gitanjali group.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that fugitive businessmen Vijaya Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi are "coming back" to India" to face the law.
The jewellers and companies linked to Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi had allegedly colluded with PNB officers to obtain fake bank guarantees to get loan from overseas branches of Indian banks including Allahabad Bank, Axis Bank and UCO Bank.
All these companies were provided loans by PNB as part of consortium lending.
Gold prices fell by Rs 180 to Rs 27,520 per 10 grams on Monday, while silver prices also dropped by Rs 300 to Rs 45,500 per kg taking weak global price trend.
'I was shocked by the kidnapping episode. I could have lost my life.'
Vipul Chitalia was apprehended at Mumbai airport and brought to the CBI office at the Bandra-Kurla Complex in Mumbai for questioning, he said, but did not divulge any other details about Chitalia's alleged role in the PNB fraud.
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"To support our massive retail activities, we plan to have our own textile brands - three women's wear brands, one men's wear and one kid's wear - in the next six months," says Deepak Tulsian, vice president, retail, of Gitanjali Gems.
Leading diamond jewellery manufacturer and retailer Gitanjali Gems Ltd is entering into real estate business through its maiden residential project at Borivli, in Mumbai's western suburb.
India's jewellery retailer Gitanjali Group is planning to invest up to $75 million (around Rs 414 crore) in increasing its number of outlets in the UAE to 110 within two years.
The jeweller, who had left the country before Punjab National Bank approached the CBI with complaint against him and Nirav Modi, said the media continued to conduct a trial by itself blowing each and every issue out of proportion.
Companies owned by fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi have allegedly siphoned off over Rs 6,344.96 crore from the Punjab National Bank (PNB) using fraudulent letters of undertaking and foreign letters of credit, a CBI investigation into the scam has detected. The findings were submitted by the CBI in a supplementary chargesheet filed before a special court in Mumbai last week, where the agency said the PNB was conned by its employees who were allegedly hand in gloves with Choksi and his company executives and who facilitated the scam as part of a criminal conspiracy. The PNB officials at the bank's Brady House branch in Mumbai issued 165 letters of undertaking (LoUs) and 58 foreign letters of credit (FLCs) during March-April 2017, against which 311 bills were discounted.
The chargesheet, filed in a special court in Mumbai, also names several other top officials of the bank.
Modi has been relentless in building his brand regardless of banks having a problem of fraudulent and unauthorised transactions with his companies.
Gitanjali gems successfully completed its take over of Nakshatra Diamonds. Gitanjali now plans to make it a jewellery and lifestyle brand.
The PNB ambassador is Virat Kohli, Priyanka Chopra and Siddharth Malhotra are the faces of the Nirav Modi label, Kangana Ranaut, Kriti Sanon and others endorse the family of brands under the Gitanjali Group.
Gitanjali Group, the Rs 4,500-crore (Rs 45 billion) diamond-studded jewellery manufacturing firm, has evinced interest in setting up a special economic zone (SEZ) for diamond processing industry near Bangalore.
'The fact remains that as of today, the justice that I deserve is far off, as it shall take time to prove my innocence, and the future seems uncertain presently,' Mehul Choksi tells his employees in a letter.
Gitanjali Group on Friday launched Diamond Price Index and Online Diamond Store ezeediamonds.com, to promote diamonds as an investment option.
Choksi has appealed to the Interpol to not issue an RCN against him as the charges are politically motivated, officials said
According to a complaint from Bank of Baroda, the conspirators allegedly cheated a consortium of bank loans of Rs 3,695 crore. The scam was earlier estimated at around Rs 800 crore.
Given how everything has played out, Mehul Choksi, now 62, achieved all that he wanted but for all the wrong reasons, says Pavan Lall.
Thousands of unlisted companies registered with RoCs will soon go under watch on lines similar to the oversight by the Securities and Exchange Board of India of listed companies.
After taking action against 226,000 shell companies last year, the ministry of corporate affairs has now zeroed in on a fresh batch of suspected shell companies.
The government has given sanction for prosecution against PNB executive director Sanjiv Sharan as part of the clean up exercise in the system.
'We want the government to provide job security for all these workers,' says E S N Reddy, district general secretary of CITU.
The agency has written to the Interpol to issue a Red Corner Notice which would mean that the member countries of the Lyon-based international police cooperation agency can arrest and extradite Nirav Modi
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"Our preliminary estimates show we may have to provide for around Rs 60 billion in the balance sheet for the quarter ending on March. The due date for LoUs amounting to Rs 60 billion is falling in the present quarter. This will be a contingent liability for the bank," said a senior executive, on condition of anonymity.
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