How Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi pulled off one of India's biggest scams

Mumbai: The mama-bhanja (Uncle-newphew) diamantaire duo of Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi managed to execute one of the biggest scams by allegedly duping the Punjab National Bank of nearly Rs 13,800-crores.

Both are facing proceedings by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) and face cases against Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (FEOA).

For the past seven years, they have managed to evade Indian agencies.

While Nirav Modi remains in London facing extradition proceedings, his maternal uncle Choksi was arrested in the city last week.

Born in Mumbai and educated in Gujarat, Choksi, 66, and wife his Preeti have three children.

Choksi left India on January 4, 2018, from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. An FIR was registered against him on January 31, 2018. Subsequently, on February 23, 2018, his passport was revoked by RPO, Mumbai.

According to reports, Choksi was living with his wife Preeti (who is Belgium citizen) in Antwerp, a global diamond hub, presumably for the past 18 months on a ‘residency permit’ acquired through questionable means, for medical reasons.

The scam is almost four times bigger than the stock market-cum-banking fraud the late Big Bull Harshad Mehta had inflicted on the Indian economy 33 years ago - in April 1992.

According to the case of CBI and ED, Choksi and Modi used fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoU) to get overseas credits or loans from Indian banks.

Post-scam, the gold-diamond companies Gitanjali Group and Firestone Group with multiple operations in India and abroad have largely closed down, while some personal assets of the mama-bhanja have been auctioned to recover a part of the dues.