The Central Bureau of Investigation has told a special CBI court hearing the Punjab National Bank-Nirav Modi scam case that further investigation needs to be conducted on the roles of Cyril Shroff and Shaneen Parikh, senior partner and partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas.

The agency made this clear in a supplementary charge sheet it filed against the diamond jeweler who is now a fugitive economic offender and five additional accused on Friday.

CBI had seized documents related to the estimated Rs 13,570-crore scam from Lower Parel office of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) in February last year and is probing if the law firm helped Modi hide key evidence related to the case.

One of the accused, Vipul Ambani had allegedly met Shroff and Parikh before the said documents were brought and concealed in CAM’s office, and Modi allegedly transferred Rs 2.12 crore to the law firm’s accounts in February 2018, CBI said in the charge sheet. ET reviewed a copy of the supplementary charge sheet.

CAM declined to comment on the matter as it’s sub judice. “The firm acted purely in a professional capacity,” the company said in an email response to ET. “The firm has cooperated fully with the agencies, and maintains its stand that it has done nothing wrong.”

Modi, currently lodged at London’s Wandsworth prison, is wanted for allegedly raising billions of dollars in credit from foreign banks over the years.

The new CBI charge sheet claims that between 2011 and 2017, 1,214 letters of undertakings (LoUs) to the tune of Rs 23,780 crore were fraudulently issued by the accused bankers on behalf of Diamonds R US, Solar Export and Stellar Diamond. Out of these, 150 LoUs equivalent to Rs 6,498.20 crore, or about $1 billion, remained outstanding, it said.

Modi got the said documents concealed in the office premises of CAM “in connivance with accused Vipul Ambani, Miten Pandya, Nehal Modi and other accused persons” after CBI registered a case of criminal conspiracy “in order to escape the due process of law and with intent to cause the disappearance of vital documents/evidence”, the CBI charge sheet said.

It said the agency seized “a large number of incriminating documents containing more than 24,500 pages” in its searches at the said office premises on February 20 and 21, 2018. The seized documents “include original applications submitted to PNB, Brady House branch on behalf of the three accused firms for issuance of LoUs during the period of 2016 to 2017, invoices, airway bills, bills of entry, copies of swift messages pertaining to the LoUs issued by PNB, export declaration forms, foreign bill transaction advice, and counter indemnity forms”. Blank letterheads of companies linked to Modi were also seized, it said.

“Few days after the search, the employees of CAM had bought a tempo to the CBI office containing several cartons of documents connected with the case which were reportedly kept by the accused persons in the office premises of CAM...,” it said.

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Source: Legally India