CVC about Nirav Modi Fraud case

New Delhi, Apr 09: A year before the Rs 13,600 crore Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi bank scam came to light, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) had sounded an alarm over irregularities in the gems and jewelry sector.

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on Sunday said it has asked statutory auditors of the bank to appear before it to furnish specific details about financial transactions.

The watchdog asserted the need for strengthening the preventive vigilance mechanism, ensuring procedures were not just routinely followed but that the veracity of reports was verified.

CVC's annual report for 2017 says the commision held a meeting on January 5, 2017 with senior officials of the CBI and Enforcement Directorate, and chief vigilance officers of 10 banks, including Punjab National Bank (PNB), to discuss serious irregularities in the accounts of some jewellery firms, particularly those of Jatin Mehta's Winsome group.

PNB has been left grappling with the Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi scam after the duo, in collusion with some bank officials, illegally renewed letters of undertaking. Modi and Choksi left India with their families in the first week of January this year and a case was registered against them soon after. The CVC report puts the focus on lapses on part of PNB's senior management.

Chief vigilance commissioner K V Chowdary told To media, "That meeting was called to particularly discuss frauds committed on banks by Jatin Mehta of Winsome group." The meeting also discussed several issues related to frauds by other jewelry firms, loopholes in the banking system, enquiry procedures by CVOs, borrowers' accounts and gold import.