Union Minister hails Mehul Choksi's arrest, vows to return looted money

India Today

Fugitive diamond trader Mehul Choksi was arrested in Belgium in the PNB loan fraud case. The Centre hailed the move, with Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary citing PM Modi’s vow to recover looted money and return it to the poor.

Transcript

00:00News coming in at this point in time again has got to do with Chokhsi.

00:04Let's take a look at these developments.

00:07Centre hails the arrest of fugitive Mehul Chokhsi.

00:12After his arrest in Belgium, Minister of State for Finance Panker Chaudhary says

00:16the Prime Minister had already said that the ones who have looted the money of the poor will have to return it.

00:22Action is being taken against a lot of people in the country.

00:25Chokhsi has been arrested. It's a very big achievement, says the central government.

00:45Alright, I'm going to go straight across to Chetan Bhutani for more details on that story.

00:49The government essentially lauding this development.

00:52It's a big development at the end of the day. After eight years or so, finally Chokhsi has been arrested. Chetan.

01:00Well, yeah, absolutely. The government will rightly claim this victory because

01:04after constant follow-ups with agencies, with the ports and of course such a good attaching of the properties

01:11of Mehul Chokhsi, Nirav Modi and trying to give justice to the banks, trying to recover the money through the banks,

01:16the government has now completely lauded its action and rightfully so, the MOS Finance giving out a big statement in Nagpur

01:25that as per the direction of Prime Minister Modi, we have worked constantly on providing a lot of troubles to the fugitives

01:33who have been looting India's money and subsequently his arrest will definitely mean that he will come back to India.

01:39But of course, that's what we'll have to wait and watch for the timeline, Sneha, because these extradition processes,

01:44even though how much time or how much good we have at extradition treaty with any country,

01:49it still takes two to three years minimum. So, yes, the government taking full credit for the victory.

01:56But yes, this process is still longer than we think it is.

02:00And we'll have to wait and watch because Chokhsi rightfully will also have its lawyers contesting the claim as well.

02:06You know, be with us, Chetan. I'll just come back to you in a moment from now.

02:09Listen in from the Minister of State for Finance and what he said essentially about the arrest of Mehul Chokhsi today.

02:15All right, we'll just in fact play that soundbite in a moment from now with the government hailing this development from today

02:30where Mehul Chokhsi, the man behind the PNB's scam defrauding the government and the people of the country

02:36of 13,500 crore who had run away from India and had been moving countries, has finally been arrested.

02:43The government has lauded this move, talking about the fact that he has been arrested.

02:49It's a big achievement. The Prime Minister of the country had said that the ones who have looted the money of the poor

02:55will have to return it. Chetan continues to be with us.

03:00Chetan, you know, the very fact is that extradition-wise, it looks like it isn't going to be so difficult.

03:07India and Belgium do have an extradition treaty.

03:09But talk to us about the magnitude A of this scam.

03:12The government has promised that, you know, the people who have been defrauded will be getting justice.

03:19The Prime Minister said the poor will get their money back.

03:22But how was it even possible?

03:24Talk to us about what the government now intends to do from here on.

03:28Well, you know, Sneha, the process is a bit complex because now what happens is that Mehul Chokhsi will have to reach out

03:34to the lower courts first. And depending on what the lower courts say, they will have to move to the higher courts.

03:40The process remains the same for Mehul Chokhsi as well.

03:43And once the process is completed, then the extradition treaty and its clauses come into effect.

03:48But for the benefit of our viewers, I'd like to point out the modus of rising that happened between 2011 and 2017.

03:53Well, Mehul Chokhsi, the diamond trader and the owner of Gitanjali Jens and his nephew, Ketirav Modi,

03:59in fact, collated together and obtained fraudulent letters of undertaking and foreign letters of credit from TNB's

04:06Brady House branch in Mumbai.

04:07These financial instruments were issued without proper collateral documentation, bypassing the banking protocol.

04:13Well, these LOUs, the letter of understanding, were used to secure short-term credit from overseas banks,

04:20which was then funneled through their sell companies in Hong Kong, Dubai and N-12.

04:24But the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate estimate Chokhsi's firm defrauded Punjab National Bank of worth about 6,800-odd crore rupees,

04:32while Nirav Modi's firms accounted for close to about 6,400-odd crore rupees, making this scam close to about 14,000-odd crore rupees.

04:41Well, how was this detected for the benefit of the public and its memory?

04:45In January 2018, TNB flagged suspicious transactions when Chokhsi and Modi's firms sought new LOUs without settling prior dues.

04:53And this was the time when Punjab National Bank, being a listed entity, had to inform the stock exchanges

04:59of possible missing transactions and possible missing money from the bank account.

05:04So, that's when CBI was handed over the complaint and that scam was unearthed.

05:08All right. Chetan, I'm going to thank you for getting in those details.

05:12My colleague there from Business Today putting that story into perspective for us.

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