PNB scam: fresh charge sheet names Nirav Modi's brother

The CBI on December 20 filed a supplementary charge sheet in the $2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, naming fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi's brother Nehal and four others as accused.

Besides Nirav Modi, the charge sheet named his brother Nehal Modi, suspended deputy general manager at PNB Sanjay Prasad, and Nirav Modi's associates Amit Magia, Sandeep Mistri and Mihir Bhansali.

Bhansali, Mistri and Nehal Modi are out of country and summons should be issued against them, the CBI said while submitting the charge sheet in the court of Judge V C Barde. Special public prosecutor A Limosin said the agency has added fresh charges of 'destruction of evidence' and threatening the witnesses in the supplementary charge sheet.

Nirav Modi had sent Nehal to Dubai with the intention of "destroying the evidence and obstructing the process of justice", the charge sheet said.

Nehal Modi along with other accused coerced "dummy directors" of Dubai-based firms which were controlled by Nirav Modi into "shifting" to Cairo in Egypt, the agency said.

Nehal also told the staff of Nirav Modi's Hong Kong- based firms not to come to India to take part in the probe, the agency alleged.

These directors of Modi's Dubai and Hong Kong-based companies told the CBI that they were asked to sign certain documents to show that they were the real owners of the companies, it said.

Nirav Modi had also made threatening calls to these directors, the CBI said.

These shell companies were shown as engaged in export-import of jewelery with Diamonds R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds, the firms allegedly involved in the scam.

The dummy firms in Dubai and Hong Kong were the beneficiaries of "Buyers' credit" obtained from oversees banks on the strength of Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) fraudulently issued by PNB officials, the CBI said. After the registration of case in PNB scam, 50 kg of gold and 4 million Arab Emirates Dirahm lying in the bank accounts of dummy companies were taken out by the accused, it said. Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi allegedly cheated PNB to the tune of Rs 14,000 crore by fraudulently obtaining LoUs from its Mumbai branch.