Key official of diamantaire Nirav Modi's firm deported from Egypt: Officials
New Delhi(PTI): Subhash Shankar Parab, a key accused in the Rs 7,000 crore diamantaire Nirav Modi bank fraud case, was deported from Cairo on Tuesday after a long diplomatic and legal process, officials said here.
A CBI team had gone to Egypt's capital to bring back 50-year-old Parab, who was allegedly kept in illegal confinement in a Cairo suburb by Modi, the fugitive diamantaire, they said.
The CBI had been chasing Parab, Deputy General Manager (Finance) in Modi's Firestar Diamond and understood to be a key witness to the Letters of Undertaking (LoU) submitted to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) to siphon off over Rs 7,000 crore, they said.
Soon after the scam broke in 2018, Parab was one of the executives who went missing along with Modi's family members and his uncle Mehul Choksi.
The latter found refuge in Antigua and Barbuda, a Carribbean island country, they said.
India had issued an Interpol Red Notice against Parab to track him and bring him back, they said.
India received information that Parab, a crucial link related to LoUs, was kept in illegal confinement by Modi's men. He was taken from Dubai to Egypt, and India had expressed concerns for his safety, they said.
After a long diplomatic and legal process, the CBI managed to secure administrative extradition or deportation of Parab, who could spill the beans on the country's biggest banking scam allegedly perpetrated by Modi and Choksi with a combined loss of Rs 13,000 crore, they said.
The duo is wanted for allegedly siphoning off Rs 13,500 crore of public money from the state-run PNB, using the Letters of Undertaking.
While Modi is in a London prison after repeated denial of bail and is contesting extradition to India, Choksi had taken the citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda in 2017 using the Citizenship by Investment programme even before fleeing India in the first week of January 2018. The scam came to light subsequently.
The CBI has charged a PNB official Gokulnath Shetty, along with others, with allegedly helping Modi and Choksi to perpetrate the scam by issuing LOUs to their firms, based on which they took loans from banks abroad.
The investigations revealed that messages for fraudulent LoUs were sent to overseas banks by misusing Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), an international messaging system for banking, and without making their subsequent entries in PNB's internal software Finacle', thus bypassing any scrutiny of such funds in the bank, they said.
An LoU is a guarantee given by an issuing bank to Indian banks having branches abroad to grant a short-term credit to the applicant. In case of default, the bank issuing the LoU has to pay the liability to the credit-giving bank along with accruing interest.
The companies of Modi and Choksi took loans from banks abroad on the basis of these LoUs but did not repay them, thus transferring the liability on PNB.
It is alleged that senior officials of the PNB, including the then CEO and MD, did not implement the circulars and caution notices issued by the Reserve Bank of India regarding safeguarding of the SWIFT operation and misrepresented the factual position to the apex bank.
Reconciliation of the Core Banking Solutions (CBS) and SWIFT messages was not done despite repeated RBI circulars, caution notices and questionnaires, the CBI has alleged.
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If Ambedkar was not there, Nehru would not have allowed reservation for SCs and STs: PM Modi
Motihari (Bihar) (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday alleged that the INDIA bloc stood for corruption, appeasement politics and a "perverted anti-Sanatan mindset", all of which would receive a "big blow" when the Lok Sabha poll results are announced on June 4.
Addressing an election rally in the East Champaran Lok Sabha constituency of Bihar, the PM also launched indirect attacks on leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav, who he said were "born with silver spoons".
"The nation cannot move forward with the sins of the INDIA bloc, which stands for corruption, appeasement politics, represents the 'tukde-tukde' gang and a perverted mindset that heaps scorn on Sanatan Dharma," he said.
"This is the reason why the INDIA bloc was exhausted in the very first phase of the elections. In the subsequent phases, it was battered. In the remaining two phases, the trend will continue and on June 4 when votes are counted, the results will come as a big blow to the intentions of the opposition alliance," he claimed.
Modi alleged that Congress wants to change the Constitution to "snatch" reservations from SCs, STs and OBCs, and hand it over to those who indulge in "vote jihad".
"If Ambedkar was not there, Nehru would not have allowed reservation for SCs and STs," he claimed.
Modi also bristled at the opposition parties' criticism of welfare schemes run by his government, claiming his opponents had "bundles of notes stashed away in Swiss banks" and could not understand the plight of the common people "the way I do, having been born in a poor family".
"They were opening accounts in Swiss banks, while the people of India were starving," he alleged.
Referring to Tejashwi Yadav, whom he did not mention by name, Modi said, "I am told that the 'waaris of jungle raaj' has been saying I will be advised bed rest after the Lok Sabha elections. The 'shehzada' of Congress says he wants to see me in tears. His party openly chants slogans like 'Modi teri kabr khudegi' (your grave will be dug)."
"These people have a counterpart in Uttar Pradesh (an allusion to Akhilesh Yadav) who says I have reached the end of my life and hence contesting from Varanasi," said Modi, adding that the remarks betrayed a lack of sensitivity on the part of those "born with silver spoons, who have never known what is a life filled with struggles".
In his speech, Modi also made a reference to the much-talked-about feast Gandhi had enjoyed at Lalu Prasad’s residence last year.
"Those who refused the invitation to the consecration of Ram temple in Ayodhya had no problems in sharing a meal with the corrupt," he said.
Modi also referred to East Champaran as Mahatma Gandhi's "karma bhoomi" and his own roots in Gujarat "the janmabhoomi (place of birth)".
"The Congress betrayed his ideals upon coming to power and devoted itself to promoting the interests of one family," he alleged.
"I have spent my first 10 years in power filling the potholes left by the Congress. I intend to speed up progress in the next term," said Modi as he spoke about his thrust on welfare measures like toilets for women "who had to suffer physical ailments because of the absence of this very basic of all amenities".
