The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday got 14-day custody of Subhash Shankar Parab, a close confidant of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, hours after he was arrested by the agency in Cairo and brought to India.
Parab is wanted in the Punjab National Bank fraudulent LOU cases involving Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi. It is alleged that he looked after the banking related activities of Modi’s three companies — Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds. He was also the deputy general manager (operations) in another Modi company Firestar International Private Limited.
According to the agency, the accused knew that the three firms did not have any credit facilities with the bank and had not provided 100% cash margin for the issuance of fraudulent letters of undertaking (LOUs).
While seeking his custody, the CBI submitted before a special Mumbai court that Parab was also instrumental in handling the financials of six Hong Kong-based and 13 Dubai-based dummy companies floated by Modi, who along with his associates allegedly caused a loss of ₹6,498.20 crore to the bank. The total amount involved in the fraud, also allegedly perpetrated by Choksi, is about ₹13,578 crore.
Parab had flown out of the country on January 1, 2018, before the scam broke out and the CBI registered the first case. Following requests from the agency and the Enforcement Directorate, Interpol opened a Red Notice against him.
On May 14, 2018, the CBI filed a chargesheet against 22 accused persons, including Parab and the three firms, under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act. A supplementary chargesheet was also submitted later. The other accused are Modi, his wife Ami, brother Neeshal, Choksi and partners of all the three companies, besides the bank’s former deputy manager, Gokulnath Shetty, and his junior colleague, Manoj Kharat.
The CBI also said that Parab played a key role in shifting about 12 employees of Modi’s companies from Dubai and Hong Kong to Cairo on the promise of lucrative prospects, after the CBI and the ED took up the probe. These employees had been shown as directors in the overseas shell companies controlled by Modi.
In the suburbs of Cairo, the employees were kept in confinement in two bungalows for about four-five months. They were threatened with dire consequences if they did not cooperate. Their passports were also taken away by Parab.
Modi also had allegedly ensured that the mobile phones of all these employees were destroyed in Dubai. A United Arab Emirates-based server through which the accused persons communicated among themselves secretly was also disposed of. Over a period of time, however, almost all the employees managed to fly out of Cairo. Their statements were later recorded by the investigating agencies.
Nirav Modi is currently lodged in Wandsworth jail in London. He has appealed against his extradition to India. In February 2021, a Westminster Magistrates’ Court had allowed his extradition, and it was also ratified by the United Kingdom’s Home Secretary. His uncle is facing extradition proceedings in Antigua and Barbuda, where he had taken citizenship before he flew out of India on January 4, 2018.
