In the PNB fraud case, authorities have registered a money laundering case against Nirav Modi, one of India’s richest men and jeweller to top Hollywood stars including Kate Winslet and Naomi Watts.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested a former employee of the Punjab National Bank who is believed to be key figure in the 11,500-crore fraud disclosed by the country’s second-largest state-run lender earlier this week, a police source said on Saturday. Two other persons were arrested too.
Officials arrested Gokulnath Shetty, a retired deputy manager at Punjab National Bank, and Manoj Kharat, who was described by the source as a “single window operator” at the lender.
They are suspected of steering fraudulent loans to companies linked to billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and to entities tied to jewellery retailer Gitanjali, which is led by Modi’s uncle, Mehul Choksi.
The agency also arrested a third person, Hemant Bhat, whom the source described as the “authorised signatory” of the companies tied to Modi, the billionaire jeweller believed to be at the centre of the bank fraud.
All three will appear in a Mumbai court later on Saturday, the source said.
They were taken into custody by the agency in connection with an FIR registered on January 31 against Modi, his companies and Choksi.
These were the first arrests so far in the country’s biggest-ever bank scam. PNB is the country’s second-largest state-run lender.
The investigation and “examination of others is continuing,” the source said.
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