India federal police arrest four more in PNB probe

Gitanjali Gems

04/03/2018 17:57

MUMBAI, March 4 (Reuters) - India's federal police have made
four more arrests in the $2 billion fraud case involving state
lender Punjab National Bank (PNB), widening the investigation of
the biggest banking fraud in the country’s history.
    More than a dozen people have been arrested by India’s
Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) since the fraud at PNB,
India’s second-biggest lender, came to light in January.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1QH4TO
    The CBI said on Sunday that it had arrested Manish Bosamiya
and Miten Pandya, both former employees of Firestar
International -- a company owned by billionaire jeweller Nirav
Modi. 
    Businesses owned by Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi have
been accused of securing unauthorised loans using fraudulent
letters of undertaking from PNB.
    The former Firestar employees were arrested on suspicion of
fabricating paperwork for the fraud, the CBI said.
    An auditor, Sampat Rambhia, was also arrested, as was
Aniyath Shiv Raman, a former director of M/s Gili India, who the
CBI alleges authorised paperwork used in the fraud. Gili is
owned by Choksi.
    None of the latest individuals to be arrested were reachable
for comment on Sunday.
    The agency has yet to track down Modi and Choksi, who left
India in January before the fraud came to light. Both have
issued statements denying the CBI’s charges. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N1QE0AR
    Modi and Choksi, owner of Gitanjali Gems  GTGM.NS , are
suspected of colluding with bank officials at PNB to obtain
unauthorised loans over a six-year period starting in 2011.
Gitanjali has also denied CBI’s accusations.

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India federal police arrest auditor at PNB as investigation
widens     ID:nL4N1QI5XV 
TAKE A LOOK-PNB hit by $2 bln scam in India's biggest bank fraud
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 (Reporting by Krishna N. Das
Writing by Zeba Siddiqui
Editing by David Goodman)
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