The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday told the Bombay high court that Maiank Mehta, brother-in-law of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, should not be allowed to travel abroad as it was yet to find out his role in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud.
The central agency said that though Mehta had not been named as an accused in its case he had received large sums of the siphoned PNB money which he transferred to his wife’s account.
A single-judge bench of justice P D Naik was hearing an application filed by the CBI opposing the special Enforcement Directorate (ED) court’s order permitting Mehta to travel to Hong Kong.
On the other hand, advocate Hiten Venegaonkar, appearing for the ED, said as Mehta, a resident of Hong Kong, had turned approver in the money-laundering case, it did not oppose his application as long as he complied with the directions of the special court.
Senior counsel Raja Thakare for the CBI said the agency did not want an economic offender to flee as the offence was being investigated and that the CBI registered the case before the ED.
When asked whether Mehta was an accused in the case, Thakare replied in the negative and said it may not be necessary for the agency to go into the facts of the matter. “An economic offender is involved in a massive bank fraud, and the investigation is yet to end. Would it be prudent to allow the person to travel abroad?”
Thakare said Mehta was a British national, a permanent resident of Hong Kong, and had his family and business there and as he did not specify the number of days he wanted to travel, the CBI had reasons to be apprehensive.
The lawyer further said that while in the ED case, statements of witnesses and officers could be considered as evidence, the CBI needed to collect proper evidence that would withstand legal scrutiny.
He claimed that by creating fraudulent letters of undertaking, the funds were siphoned off in the names of three companies of Modi and they had made it to the account of Mehta which he later transferred to his wife’s account. The court was informed that when Mehta was asked about it, he said that they were wrong entries while his wife said that they were gifts from her husband.
Thakare said that an investigation had to be conducted as Mehta did not produce the details of his Barclay Bank account in which the funds had been transferred when he was issued summons.
On the query of the court as to why the CBI had waited so long even though the FIR was registered in 2018, Thakare replied that the transactions were in 2017 and the agency first focussed on Modi.
Thakare then told the bench that Mehta came to India only after he was tendered pardon as a result of which the non-bailable warrants against him stood cancelled. But his wife who was also granted pardon is yet to come to India, he said, seeking cancellation of the lower court’s order.
Mehta is expected to argue his side and respond to the CBI claims on Friday.
On January 31, 2018, the CBI registered a case under sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1985 and the relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code against Modi and several others, including PNB officials.
According to the complaint lodged by PNB, between February and May 2017, Modi and his partnership firms – M/s Diamond R US, M/s Solar Exports, and M/s Stellar Diamond – got fraudulently issued 150 letters of undertaking from Brady House branch of the public sector bank and duped PNB to the tune of $1,015.35 million, equivalent to ₹6,498.20 crore.