PNB scam case: Supreme Court to hear bank plea on Friday

A petition seeking registration of cases against all those involved in the PNB fraud and “immediate deportation” of Nirav Modi seeks the formation of a committee to document the details of bad debts in the country

A man exits Punjab National Bank's building as a stray dog walks past in Kolkata. Image Source: Reuters

Two separate petitions have been filed, in regards to Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems scam, with the Supreme Court, which has decided to hear Punjab National Bank's plea on February 23.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud today reportedly agreed to hear the plea by lawyer Vineet Dhanda.

The first petition, filed by advocate Vinit Dhanda, has sought the apex court direction to the Finance Ministry and RBI to ensure the extradition of Nirav Modi. Also, to create guidelines for those who take loan above Rs 10 crore.

Besides seeking registration of cases against all those involved in the PNB fraud and “immediate deportation” of Nirav Modi, the petition also seeks the formation of a committee of experts to document the details of bad debts in the country, stated LiveLaw.in report.

"By its very name, CBS ought to cover every single banking transactions. Has anybody certified the robustness of CBS Systems that are being used by all banks? How many of them have provision for manual entry of key parameters allowing employees to make unsupervised decisions? This system is leaving scope for human error. There have been cases of miscalculation of interest of banks despite a CBS. But all these are ignored," the petition submits before the SC.

The second petition, filed by Advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, has sought a court-monitored SIT probe into the banking fraud.

"Despite having information about the fraud on January 16, PNB did not report it to the police or CBI but got busy in changing the bank records/ other written information at the behest of the Finance Minister and only on January 29 was a complaint made to the CBI Mumbai branch naming 7 bank employees and three companies showing a loss of Rs 280.70 crores," the petition stated as reported in Live Law.

Meanwhile, Nirav Modi on Tuesday broke his silence and through a letter denied allegations involving in a $1.8 billion loan fraud at PNB, said Reuters report.

Vijay Aggarwal, Nirav Modi's lawyer, told Reuters that all transactions with PNB were documented and allegations made by the Central Bureau of Investigation were completely wrong "Everything is documented."

Reportedly, Indian federal police have alleged Modi and others conspired with several employees of the state-run bank to fraudulently obtain advances for paying overseas suppliers.

When asked about legal strategy, the lawyer reportedly said, "Until there is no charge sheet, there is no strategy. When there is a charge sheet, there will be a strategy."