Media Eye News Bureau: The CBI arrested three PNB officials after an intense interrogation in connection with the Rs 11,384 crore scam involving billionaire jewellery merchants Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.
The CBI has so far arrested five people in connection to the case including four PNB officials and a retired employee of the bank namely Manoj Kharat, a Single Window Operator at PNB; Gokulnath Shetty, a retired employee; Bechhu Tiwari, the then chief manager in the Forex department; Yashwant Joshi, Scale II Manager in the Forex department and Praful Sawant, Scale-I officer handling the exports section as well.
Over Rs 11,384 crore worth of Letter of Understanding and Letters of Credit were issued by the bank in favour of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi through SWIFT messages with only limited number worth smaller sums being entered in the core banking solutions system.
However, these messages were not routinely updated in the Core Banking Solutions system of the bank which takes care of daily business. Shetty and Kharat allegedly sent messages of these LoUs and LCs through SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) which is used to pass instructions among banks globally to transfer funds.
