‘Won’t Believe Excuses Made by Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi’: CBI

CBI’s statement came after Choksi, in his letter to the CBI, refused to return to India citing health issues.

Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi

(Photo altered by The Quint)

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday, 8 March, rubbished the ‘excuses’ given by the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam accused Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi for not being able to return to India, reported ANI.

Both Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi have been asked to disclose their locations but they haven’t disclosed yet. CBI is not believing the excuses given by both of them.

CBI, as quoted by ANI.

CBI also registered fresh cases against two firms of Nirav Modi in the Rs 12,700 crore PNB fraud.

The CBI statement comes after Choksi, in his seven-page letter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), refused to appear before the agency on the grounds of “persisting health problems.”

Choksi wrote the letter as a reply to a summon served to him by the CBI to appear before it on Wednesday, 7 March.

He said he had “a cardiac procedure which was conducted in the first week of February 2018,” adding that he was not allowed to travel.

Choksi didn’t disclose his location in the letter, and instead requested the CBI to communicate with him via email or through his lawyer in India.

Fresh Case Registered Against Nirav Modi

The CBI on Thursday said that it has registered a fresh case against Nirav Modi for causing a loss of Rs 321 crore to PNB by availing different credit facilities between 2013 and 2017, reported IANS.

According to a CBI official, the case was registered after the bureau received a fresh complaint from the PNB on Sunday, 4 March.

Former finance president of Nirav Modi's Firestar Diamonds International Ltd, Vipul Ambani, chief finance officer Ravi Gupta, other directors and officials of the company, and unidentified public servants of the bank were also named in the complaint, they said.

In its complaint to the CBI, the bank alleged that during its internal investigation it had spotted circular transactions between Modi’s promoted partnership firms namely Solar Exports, Stellar Diamonds and Diamond R Us, and Firestar group of companies.

The head office of the bank had declared the accounts of Firestar Diamonds and Firestar International as fraud and reported it to the Reserve Bank of India on Sunday, it said.

(With inputs from ANI and IANS)