The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday arrested Subhash Shankar Parab, the close aide of fugitive diamond trader Nirav Modi, for his involvement in the Punjab National Bank fraud, The Indian Express reported.
Parab has been deported from Egypt’s capital Cairo. He had flown to the city in 2018 after his role in the scam came to the fore.
Modi and his associates are accused of duping the Punjab National Bank of more than Rs 13,000 crore. They had allegedly made profits from fraudulent transactions involving letters of undertaking issued by the Punjab National Bank. Such letters give the bank guarantee for one of its customers to make payments to its offshore suppliers in foreign currency.
Parab has been on the Interpol Red notice list since July 2018 and is wanted for criminal conspiracy, breach of trust by a public servant or by a banker merchant or agent, cheating, and dishonestly inducing delivery of property.
Parab, an employee of Firestar International Pvt Ltd, was allegedly in charge of monitoring transactions of six Hong Kong companies that received letters of undertakings from Punjab National Bank worth over Rs 8,200 crore on behalf of Modi, The Indian Express reported.
Parab allegedly relocated 12 employees of Modi’s companies from Dubai and Hong Kong to Cairo, promising lucrative prospects, after the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate got on their trail, The Hindu reported.
The employees were presented as directors in overseas shell companies. Parab allegedly took away their passports and kept them confined. Most of the employees have left Egypt, and have given their statements to authorities, the newspaper reported.
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