Nirav Modi, the alleged mastermind of Rs 11, 400 crore banking scam, has reportedly written to the PNB blaming the bank for his financial fraud. In a letter to the PNB, Modi said that the bank was to be blamed for restricting his ability to pay the loans running in thousands of crores.
Modi, according to a report by PTI, claimed that the dues were much less than what the bank claimed, and that his relatives booked in the cases filed by the central agencies had nothing to do with the operations of the firms under their scanner.
“My wife is not connected with any business operations at all and she has been wrongly named. My uncle is also wrongly named in this complaint since he has an independent and unconnected business and none of them are aware or concerned with my dealings with your bank.
“Whatever may be the consequences I may face for my actions, the haste was, in my humble submission, unwarranted,”PTI, which said it had seen the copy of Modi’s letter, quoted him as saying. Owning up everything, he said that the bank had wrongly named his brother, who is not at all concerned with the operations of the three firms or other companies.
Modi claimed the money owed by him to the bank was less than Rs 5,000 crore. The language used by Modi to the bank, who he had defrauded, is extraordinary and unusual for someone, who’s being termed as a kingpin of the biggest banking fraud India has ever experienced. Such is the gravity of his crime that he may to have to spend rest of his life in jail, but the tone of his language in the letter is indicative of just how powerful the alleged mastermind of the Rs 11,400 crore scam thought he was.
Modi’s brother Neeshal Modi is married to Mukesh Ambani’s niece Isheta Salgaocar. Mukesh Ambani had hosted a star-studded pre-wedding bash for the couple at his Mumbai home in 2016.
“The erroneously cited liability resulted in a media frenzy which led to immediate search and seizure of operations, and which in turn resulted in Firestar International and Firestar Diamond International effectively ceasing to be going-concerns,” he wrote.
He added, “In the anxiety to recover your dues immediately, despite my offer (on February 13, a day before the public announcement, and on 15) your actions have destroyed my brand and the business and have now restricted your ability to recover all the dues leaving a trail of unpaid debts,” he said.
On the over Rs. 11,000-crore loss claimed by the PNB in the FIR, Modi said, “As you are aware, this is entirely incorrect and the liability of the Nirav Modi Group is substantially less.” He said that even after PNB’s complaint was filed, he wrote to them in good faith asking them to sell or allow him to “sell Firestar Group, or their valuable assets, and recover the dues not just from Firestar Group, but also from the three firms.”
Modi also requested the bank to allow him to pay the salaries to 2,200 employees from the balance lying in the current accounts of his firm.