PNB fraud: Court rejects Purvi Modi’s plea to record statements via VC

Special CBI judge SK Karhale also noted that Purvi, a Belgian national and a proposed accused in the case, had failed to respond to a notice issued by the investigating officer in June 2022

MUMBAI: Purvi Modi, sister of fugitive diamond trader Nirav Modi, may have to face the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in person in the ₹6,498-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case after a special court rejected her request to have her statements recorded through video conferencing. The court said her physical presence was necessary for detailed questioning and confrontation with the “voluminous” documents, accounts and transactions involved in the case.

PNB fraud: Court rejects Purvi Modi’s plea to record statements via VC

Special CBI judge SK Karhale also noted that Purvi, a Belgian national and a proposed accused in the case, had failed to respond to a notice issued by the investigating officer in June 2022. This, the court said, prima facie showed that she had not cooperated with the investigation. The court further said that under Indian criminal law, the Investigating Officer (IO) of the case exercises complete control over its investigation and “an accused or an approver cannot dictate how the IO should conduct the investigation.”

Purvi has been named accused no. 31 in the CBI’s second supplementary charge sheet. She has also applied to become an approver in the case, like her husband, Maiank Mehta.

Seeking permission to appear through VC, Purvi told the court that she was settled in Belgium and had been cooperating with the agency. Her lawyer argued that the law, the Bombay High Court Video Conferencing Rules and the CBI Manual permit statements to be recorded through video conferencing.

The CBI opposed the request, saying Purvi was a beneficiary of the alleged fraud and had never cooperated with the investigation. The agency said it wanted to question her after she appeared before it physically and that provisions allowing video conferencing did not give her a right to insist on being examined remotely.

The court agreed with the CBI. “In these kinds of serious cases, when the Investigating Officer is insisting for physical presence of the proposed accused, Mrs Purvi Modi, because of her crucial role in the alleged crime, the opportunity of making a fair investigation has to be given to him,” the court said while rejecting the plea filed by Purvi Modi, a Belgian national.

The judge pointed to the scale of the case, noting that it involves thousands of crores of rupees and a large volume of documents, accounts, entries and transactions. Purvi’s physical presence was “just, fair and reasonable,” the court said, as it would allow investigators to confront her with the material, which requires detailed interrogation.

The court also noted that Nirav Modi’s brother Neeshal Modi is another accused and a Belgian citizen. Belgium has rejected the CBI’s plea for his extradition, citing restrictions on extraditing its citizens for offences committed in other countries.

The CBI has alleged that the Nirav Modi group defrauded PNB of ₹6,498 crore by fraudulently obtaining 150 Letters of Undertaking from the bank’s Brady House branch in Mumbai for use at overseas branches of Indian banks.