PNB scam: Special court asks Nirav Modi’s siblings to appear before it on September 25
The court, set up under the new Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, issued the summons through newspaper notices on Saturday.
A special court in Mumbai on Saturday issued public summons to fugitive businessman Nirav Modi’s sister and brother, asking them to appear before it on September 25, PTI reported. The summons were issued by a court set up under the new Fugitive Economic Offenders Act. Modi is the main accused in an alleged scam at Punjab National Bank, worth over Rs 13,000 crore.
The court said the assets of Modi’s sister Purvi Modi and brother Neeshal Modi will be seized if they do not appear before it. The summons were issued through newspaper notices on Saturday, saying the two have been “enumerated as an interested person” in an application by the Enforcement Directorate against Nirav Modi. The court had earlier asked Nirav Modi as well to appear on September 25.
The Enforcement Directorate has charged Purvi Modi and Neeshal Modi for money laundering.
Under the new Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018, a fugitive economic offender is defined as “a person against whom an arrest warrant has been issued in respect of a scheduled offence and who has left India so as to avoid criminal prosecution, or being abroad, refuses to return to India to face criminal prosecution”.
The fraud came to light in February when the Punjab National Bank informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it had detected “fraudulent and unauthorised transactions” worth Rs 11,380 crore at a branch in South Mumbai. A few officials of the public sector bank had allegedly issued fraudulent Letters of Undertaking to Modi’s companies. Modi had already fled the country. The Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation are investigating the matter.
The bank revised the figure to Rs 12,703 crore and later to around Rs 13,645 crore.