PNB scam: Congress, BJP begin blame game

A day after the massive Punjab National Bank scam came to light wherein the bank has alleged fraud at one of its Mumbai branches through illegal clearances of payments to be made abroad against imports, by facilitating buyer’s credit to the beneficiaries, both Congress and BJP blamed each other for the scam.

The State-owned bank said yesterday that it had detected a Rs 11400 crore scamin which the billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi has allegedy defrauded the bank of Rs 280 crore by allegedly acquiring fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

The bank has also lodged two complaints with the Central Bureau of Investigation against Nirav Modi and others. On January 31, the CBI registered a case against Modi, his wife, brother and a business partner, for allegedly cheating PNB of over Rs.280 crore in collusion with then Brady House branch’s Deputy Manager Gokulnath Shetty and single-window operator Manoj Kharat. The bank alleged that the bank officials had fraudulently issued eight LoUs totalling 4.42 crore dollars (equivalent to Rs.280.70 crore) for Hong Kong-based Allahabad Bank and Axis Bank.

Hitting out at the ruling BJP, Congress Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala pin the scam on ruling BJP dispensation saying how can Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi dupe the entire banking system through forged Letters of Understanding under the nose of Modi govt? Who is responsible for biggest bank loot scam unleashed by chhota Modi?

On 26 July 2016, PM was handed with all papers regarding Nirav Modi & one of his relative. It was said that complaint had 42 FIRs. Prime Minister office (PMO) acknowledged the complaint, they also sent registrar of companies to take some action. But in the end, the govt couldn't do anything, Surjewala added.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi also took a dig at Prime Minister Modi and alleged how the billionaire diamond merchant used his clout and proximity to the ruling dispensation to loot the country.

However, the Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaking in Shillong blamed the previous UPA government for the scam.

''Whatever is coming out is the result of the previous UPA govt, action will be certainly taken on it,'' she said.

Meanwhile SP Shukla, Minister of State for Finance, also blamed the UPA government for the scam by saying that they were not in the government.

''We were not in govt in 2011, if Congress is making allegations, were they sleeping from 2011-14? They should've probed it. This government is taking cognizance of matters & probing them. Congress' was a govt of scams and they established these scamsters,'' he said.

Addressing the media, PNB Managing Director said that the Government of India is monitoring the situation and they were getting full support in nabbing the culprits.

PNB has capability and capacity to come out of this. This is a standalone incident. It has taken place only in one of our branches, Mehta added.

According to Mehta, the scamstarted in 2011. "We detected it in the third week of January,2018 and promptly investigated it for 3-4 days, we went to CBI on 29 Jan and an FIR was booked on 30,'' Mehta said.

''We detected the fraud on January 3. We got to know that two of our employees did some un-authorised transactions. The bank initiated criminal action against our staff members, '' Mehta said.

The scam was first detected by the bank's officials in 2011.

According to PTI this could be the biggest banking fraud in India as its quantum was bigger than an estimated 9,000 crore scam at erstwhile Satyam Computers.

In 2015, Bank of Baroda -- another public sector bank -- had brought to light a scam in which two Delhi-based businessmen cheated it of Rs 6,000 crore (slightly less than USD 1 billion at that time.