A special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation on Sunday issued non-bailable warrants against jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi in connection with the Rs 13,500-crore alleged loan fraud at the Punjab National Bank, ANI reported. Both Modi and Choksi had fled abroad in January, weeks before news of the scam first emerged in public. They have not yet returned.

A special court under the anti-money laundering law had also issued non-bailable warrants against Modi and Choksi in March.

In February, the CBI had written to Modi asking him to come to India and cooperate with the investigation, but he had replied that he cannot return as he has a business to take care of abroad.

In February, a special court had allowed the Enforcement Directorate to send judicial requests to authorities in Hong Kong, the US, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Singapore and South Africa, asking them to help identify and seize Modi’s properties there. The CBI had also asked the Interpol to help locate Modi.

In March, the United States had said it could not confirm whether Modi was in the country after media reports claimed so.

Meanwhile, the Central Vigilance Commission said on Sunday it had asked statutory auditors of the Punjab National Bank to appear before it to submit specific information on financial transactions related to the alleged scam, PTI reported. “We are also in the process of examining the statutory auditors who had conducted the audit of this bank,” Central Vigilance Commissioner KV Chowdary said. “We are looking into the human resource aspect of it, too.”

On February 14, the Punjab National Bank had informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it had detected “fraudulent and unauthorised transactions” worth Rs 11,380 crore at its Brady House branch in South Mumbai. The bank had revised this figure to Rs 12,703 crore and later to around Rs 13,645 crore.

A few officials at the public sector bank had allegedly issued fraudulent Letters of Undertaking – essentially letters of credit telling others banks that it would meet a customer’s liabilities – to Modi’s companies. Some bank officials have been arrested and are under investigation.

‘PNB will come out of the mess in six months’

Punjab National Bank’s Managing Director Sunil Mehta said on Sunday that the worst was over for the lender and it will come out of the mess in six months. “Everything now seems to be under control as the surgery is over, and now we are in the recovery phase,” Mehta told PTI.

“It is now clear that it was a standalone incident in one of our 7,000 branches because of connivance with some of the staff of the branch,” he said. “We have learned lessons from it. Whenever a problem comes, it gives an opportunity to strengthen our existing systems and processes. We have improved every system and process with more emphasis on offline monitoring.”