Urban Mirror Correspondent
New Delhi, October 27: The Lok Gathbandhan Party (LGP) said today that the Punjab National Bank (PNB) has been struggling to improve its financial condition after Rs 14000-crore loot by diamond merchants Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi but so far there is hardly any perceptible progress in bringing these two accused back to India. The LGP said following the financial fraud the bank has been forced to sell 33% stake in the home financial arm and some other segments.
The LGP spokesman said here on Saturday that the CBI, now caught in the mess, has not been able to lay hands on these criminals who are well-ensconced abroad and now after lapse of nearly one year the case like many other similar corruption and loot cases is being pushed under the carpet. The spokesman said it is strange that despite Interpol alert both fugitives are roaming around the world and doing business which indicated that the CBI and enforcement directorate are either helpless or politically under pressure to go slow in the case to fade the issue from the memory of the people, as has happened in the past in such corruption issues. The spokesman said the NDA government has passed the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill to empower probe agencies but it has not helped in any way. The spokesman said the law is more a political propaganda than a tool for action against PNB scam accused.
The spokesman said the whole criminal conspiracy was done in a planned way to assist the PNB plunderer to escape the country. The spokesman said even after nearly one year of registration of the case against Modi and Choksi, the investigating agencies have failed to make any breakthrough in nabbing them, which indicated their poor and haphazard functioning. The spokesman said it appeared that efforts are more towards protecting them than bringing them back to country for criminal trial. The spokesman said the fraud has amply exposed weaknesses in the bank’s security system and maintenance of its records. The spokesman said that about Rs 14,000 crore PNB fraud, the largest ever in the banking sector, indicated the sector has failed to evolve a fool-proof safeguard. The spokesperson said the banking sector in collusion with the politicians and businessmen has virtually pushed the whole financial system to the collapse.
