Expanding its money laundering probe into the ₹11,500-crore Punjab National Bank scam , the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Sunday carried out searches at 45 places across 11 States and seized more assets worth ₹20 crore, taking the overall value of seizures to nearly ₹5,700 crore.
“The searches were carried at 10 locations in Bengaluru, seven in Delhi, five each in Mumbai and Kolkata, and four each in Hyderabad and Chandigarh. Several premises in Patna, Lucknow, Chennai and Guwahati were also searched during the day,” said a senior ED official.
Auditors under scrutiny
ED chief Karnal Singh will be in Mumbai on Monday to review the developments in the case. The Central Vigilance Commission may also hold a meeting with senior bank executives to determine the nature of lapses, owing to which the fraudulent transactions remained undetected for almost seven years.
Among those under scrutiny are the internal and external auditors of the bank, who apparently did not check the SWIFT messaging records during the reconciliation of accounts. The SWIFT network is used for quick and secure communication between banks for international wire transfers. PNB operates 32 SWIFT accounts.
The Income Tax Department will share with the ED its appraisal report on the Gitanjali group of companies, which is owned by co-accused Mehul Choksi, the uncle and mentor of Nirav Modi. He is currently suspected to be in the United States.
Besides him, three of the companies have been made accused in the latest case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the PNB fraud.
Shell companies
It is learnt that the Income Tax officials have detected several irregularities in their assessment report, also indicating the role of a number of shell companies in the movement of funds. More than 100 accounts have been identified.
The report was filed with the authorities this past week. The accused companies had registered cash transactions of over ₹150 crore during the demonetisation period, which are also under scrutiny.
Following instructions from the Prime Minister’s Office, multiple investigating agencies and the ministries of Finance and Corporate Affairs are coordinating with each other on the case. The agencies are sharing developments with the PMO on a daily basis.
Earlier on Saturday, a senior PNB official briefed the ED officials about the modus operandi adopted by the accused to raise unauthorised Letters of Undertaking and Foreign Letters of Credit for settling import bills since March 2011.
While the CBI has arrested three key accused in the case, the agency is questioning more than half a dozen suspects.
