New Delhi: The state-owned Punjab National Bank was among those under-government entities that did not take heed to the Central Vigilance Commission’s advice about taking action against some of its staffers who were suspected of having links in the corruption, the watchdog report said.
In the PNB Bank scam, the bank has accused billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi along with his uncle Mehul Choksi and some other bank officials of fraud of upto Rs. 13,000 crore.
The Central Vigilance Commission of CVC had presented its annual report for 2017 in parliament recently.
PNB had lent a cash credit limit of Rs. 2 Crore and term loan of Rs. 1.5 crore to a firm for setting up a manufacturing unit in Dehradun against the mortgage of property that was later found to be problematic.
“(The) loan was secured by hypothecation of stocks, plant and machinery mortgage of factory land valued at Rs. 42 lakh and mortgage of another immovable property as collateral security situated in Delhi,” the CVC said. PNB accepted the two properties in Delhi “without ensuring genuineness of property papers as well as its geographical location”, the report said.
In one of the property case, the one who sold it was not the rightful owner, and the other one was found to be a gram sabha land, so both the mortgages were found to be useless, the CVC said. It did not gave details about the deals that took place.
The anti-corruption body then asked the bank to take an urgent action against a senior manager, against whom 14 charges were filed but only two of the charges were proven.
“Non-acceptance of the Commission’s advice or non-consultation with the Commission vitiates the vigilance process and weakens the impartiality of vigilance administration,” the CVC said in the report.
According to the study done by CVC, there are more such instances in other government-run departments like the railways, civil aviation, telecommunications and even in the finance ministry who did not follow the advice by the corruption body over the issue of taking action against corrupt staffers.
The ignoring gesture by the PNB entity had led to a massive bank scam in India. Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are the prime accused in the scam game. Nirav Modi managed to get Letter of Credits from the bank in connivance with the officials without following the due procedure of the bank and the central data was also not update regarding the transaction. He fled the country just days before the bank complained to the CBI about the scam.
The government is trying to nab him out as he is reported to be staying in Hong Kong.
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