'Why should innocent customers suffer for someone else's crime?'

A man looks through the grille as a CBI team seals PNBs South Mumbai branch at Brady House on Monday PicPTIThe Central Bureau of Investigation CBI had to unseal Punjab National Bankrsquos PNBrsquos branch in Brady House Fort 24 hours after it had shut it following public outcry The agency was quick to clarify that it had only shut the branch temporarily as a search operation was underway CBIrsquos action was criticised not just by account holders but also by criminal lawyers and chartered accountantsA woman stands outside PNBs South Mumbai branch at Brady House as CBI officials had sealed the establishment PicPTIThe CBI on Sunday had sealed the branch premises stating no one was allowed to enter without the permission of court or competent authority concerned getting its notice stamped by an inspector rank officer of BSampFC CBI Mumbai and countersigned by a PNB official Yesterday it issued a statement that read ldquoCBI search that began yesterday Sunday is still continuing today in the Punjab National Bankrsquos Mid Corporate Branch Brady House Fort Mumbai in an ongoing investigation of a caseThe PNB Branch was secured with a seal briefly during wee hours so as to prevent any inadvertent or unauthorised opening by concerned PNB staff Today the seal and notice at the branch premises were removed Temporary sealing of the premises was a time bound security measure to prevent possible tampering It will not affect regular business of the branch since today is a local Holiday in Maharashtra Shivaji Jayanti sicrdquoPanned all overA woman who holds an account in the branch since years was aghast to find the seal yesterday ldquoI had to do some transactions at the branch When I reached I found it shut Initially I thought it was because of Shivaji Jayanti I had forgotten about that But on finding out that the premises had been sealed by the CBI I was shocked Why should innocent people suffer for someone elsersquos crimerdquo she askedNoted criminal lawyer Majeed Memon said ldquoThe CBI must not lose sight of the fact that more than 95 per cent of the bankrsquos customers are innocent Complete stoppage of all transactions even for a few hours by sealing the premises will cause incalculable harm to that majorityrdquoAnother lawyer Dinesh Tiwari echoed him and said ldquoThe agency could have frozen the dubious accounts instead of sealing the branch Whatever the gravity of the case sealing a branch for probe is never heard of The agencies should be more empathetic towards the publicrsquos sufferingrdquo ldquoThis is unheard of They should have just sealed workstations of the bank staff and not caused such harassment to the publicrdquo said chartered accountant M H Nahar of M H Nahar and CompanyModus operandiArrested accused Gokulnath Shetty deputy manager retired and Manoj Kharat singlewindow operator in connivance with accused companies defrauded the PNB to the tune of 75492 million Rs 488672 crore They issued fraudulent Letters of Undertaking LoUs in favour of foreign branches of Indian banks and Foreign Letters of Credits FLCs in favour of foreign suppliers of accused companies including SBI Mauritius for Gitanjali Gems Bank of India Antwerpen Belgium Canara Bank Bahrain SBI Frankfurt Allahabad Bank Hong Kong and Axis Bank Hong KongAccording to the CBI the modus operandi adopted by the accused bank officials was simple they deliberately omitted making entries of the LoUs in the Core Banking System CBS of the bank to avoid detection The funds raised through the LoUs were meant for payment of import bills of the accused companies With regard to FLCs they were initially opened for smaller amounts by creating entries in CBS and sending the relevant FLCs through SWIFT messages The accused bank officials dishonestly enhanced the value of the FLCs manifold without recording the same in the CBSAdvocate Vijay Aggarwal the same lawyer who had represented a number of highprofile accused persons in the 2G spectrum case will be representing accused jeweller Nirav Modi in connection with Punjab National Bank fraud caseThe CBI on Sunday questioned 11 Punjab National Bank PNB officials as well as Vipul Ambani the Chief Financing Officer of diamond merchant Nirav Modis Firestar Internationl company in connection with the multicrore bank fraudCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates