The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday began its probe against Gitanjali Group of Companies at 20 places in 6 cities, and 5 states.
The CBI will hold searches at locations belonging to Gitanjali Group of Mihir Choksi and others director of the accused companies and other group factories and plants including offices factories and residence.
Earlier, the CBI had registered an FIR against billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi’s relative Mehul Choksi’s Gitanjali Group of companies on the complaint of Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud scam dated 13 February.
All searches are being conducted in Maharashtra (Mumbai and Pune), Gujarat (Surat), Rajasthan (Jaipur), Telangana (Hyderabad) and Tamil Nadu (Coimbatore).
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had on Monday booked Nirav Modi, his brother Nishal Modi and the officials of PNB in this regard.
It has emerged that the fraudulently issued Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) from the Mumbai branch of PNB were in favour of Hong Kong branches of Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank, which helped facilitate Rs 280.7 crore fraud by Modi among others.
According to the official sources, Nirav Modi left the country on January 1.
CBI had received the complaint form PNB on January 28 and a case was registered in the case on January 31.
There is simply no other way out of this mess. Common man will face jail for few thousand rupees but Big fish will escape wilt legal loop holes for fraud committed and escape to go out of India. The banker-borrower nexus has been blamed for problems in the banking system for years. This episode will set off fears of a nexus deeper than imagined. The RBI and investigating agencies should act speedily to restore trust in the banking system.