New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday sought 14-day custody of fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi’s close aid Subhash Shankar Parab in connection with the Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan fraud case. Subhash was produced before a special CBI court for a remand hearing after being deported to India earlier in the day. A close associate of Nirav Modi, Subhash was arrested in Cairo, Egypt and brought to Mumbai.
Subhash was instrumental in keeping the dummy directors of Nirav Modi’s shell companies involved in the fraud at Cairo to avoid their arrest in the case after the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered cases against him in India for Rs 6,500 crore PNB loan fraud case. Nirav’s brother Nehal had instructed Subhash Parab to keep the dummy directors in Cairo safely after learning that the Indian government agencies were searching for them.
The CBI had been chasing Parab, deputy general manager (finance) in Nirav’s Firestar Diamond and understood to be a key witness to the letters of undertaking (LoU) submitted to PNB to siphon off over Rs 7,000 crore, CBI officials 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. In 2018, Interpol issued a red corner notice (RCN) against him.
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 Nirav and Mehul Choksi with a combined loss of Rs 13,000 crore, they added. Both Nirav and Choksi are wanted for allegedly siphoning off Rs 13,500 crore of public money from the state-run PNB, using the LoUs.