Nirav Modi’s close aide Subhash Parab arrested by CBI

|HT|

Subhash Shankar Parab, a close aide of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, was brought to India from Cairo on Tuesday morning and arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), people familiar with the development informed. The 49-year-old, believed to be the right hand man of Nirav Modi and a senior director in the firms – Firestar Diamond International Ltd and Diamond R US – in Dubai, had played a key role in the ₹13,578-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam. He fled to Cairo from Dubai in January 2018, around the time when Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi fled India along with their families.

A senior CBI officer said Parab, who directly reported to Modi, was brought to Mumbai and put under arrest upon his arrival. He will be produced before a Mumbai court to be taken into custody.

Investigation in the PNB fraud revealed that Parab personally supervised the collection of letters of undertaking (LoUs), fraudulently issued in connivance with PNB official Gokulnath Shetty. Parab used to direct his juniors in the company to visit the PNB branch at Brady House in Mumbai to receive the original bank documents and bring them to Diamond R US office, according to an officer.

When the scam came to light in January 2018, Modi’s brother Nehal told Parab and other senior directors in the company to leave India as they may be questioned by Indian investigation agencies. He left for Cairo in Egypt after Nehal arranged his travel, and the agencies were pursuing his extradition since then.

A charge sheet was already filed against him in 2018.

Nirav Modi is currently lodged in Wandsworth prison on the outskirts of London since March 19, 2019 after he was arrested on the basis of India’s extradition request to Britain.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)