March 4,2018:
On Saturday, a Special Court issued Non-Bailable Warrants (NBWs) against the Diamond traders Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi in the alleged Rs 114 billion Punjab National Bank scam.
Court, set up under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), issued NBWs on applications filed by Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is one of the agencies probing the bank fraud cases registered last month.
ED had earlier issued summons to Modi and Choksi, both key accused in the scam cases, asking them to appear before the central agency.
However, the two diamond traders, who are said to have left the country before criminal cases were registered, had failed to appear before the ED, promoting the agency to move the PMLA court for issuance of NBWs against them. On February 27, the ED had moved the court seeking an NBW against Modi.
Fraud amount increased to Rs 127 billion after PNB attributed an additional Rs 13 billion to Choksi-owned Gitanjali Gems. With this, the total amount attributed to Gitanjali increased to Rs 61 billion.
Picture Source :
