Vipul Ambani, Mukesh Ambani’s Cousin Arrested By CBI Along With Four Others In Nirav Modi-PNB Fraud

The Central Bureau of Intelligence (CBI) today (20 February) arrested four people in connection to the Rs 11,000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam involving Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. Among the arrested is Vipul Ambani, the chief financial officer (CFO) of Nirav Modi’s Firestar International. Ambani is the first cousin of Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani.

Others arrested include Kavita Mankikar and Arjun Patil. Mankikar was the authorised signatory for three firms named in the first information report (FIR) by the CBI –Diamonds R US, Stellar Diamond, Solar Exports – while two others, Kapil Khandelwal, CFO of the Nakshatra group and the Geetanjali group and Niten Shahi were arrested on the basis of a second FIR registered against Choksi.

Documents in connection with the scam were found during a raid of Modi’s palatial farmhouse in Alibaug on the outskirts of Mumbai.

Three PNB officials, Bechhu Tiwari, Yashwant Joshi and Praful Sawant were arrested yesterday (19 February) in connection to the fraud and during questioning by the CBI tried to pass on the blame on to retired official Gokulnath Shetty and Manoj Kharat who were arrested earlier.

CBI officials said that Tiwari, Joshi and Sawant’s job were to cross-check and verify SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) messages and upload them to the bank’s servers. SWIFT is used to make international banking transactions.