The Great Indian Political Drama - 2 (Mar 2018 - Oct 2018)

[chetak]

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[chetak]

[chetak]

[gablu]

https://swarajyamag.com/politics/kolkat ... slim-youth

A Dalit man’s minor daughter was allegedly abducted by a Muslim youth in June 2017.

The probe has failed to get underway. More importantly, police inaction in the case is not receiving the kind of news coverage it deserves.

The Kathua case has been drawing serious media, and the nation’s, attention, but few seem to have any time or concern for a heartbroken and desperate Dalit man whose minor daughter was allegedly abducted by a Muslim youth last June, and has been in captivity ever since. The man, a sanitation worker with Kolkata Municipal Corporation and a widower, came home from work on 9 June evening to find his 17-year-old daughter, who had just appeared for her Class 10 examination, missing. He complained to the police, and then got to know she was seen with a Muslim youth from Metiabruz, a Muslim-dominated area of Kolkata on the banks of the Hooghly.

The man, Binod Das, who resides in a one-room tenement with his son (who is elder to his daughter) and a grand niece, Anjali, at Garden Reach, another Muslim-dominated area neighbouring Metiabruz, lodged a complaint with the Garden Reach Police station the next day. The police registered a case under Section 363 of the Indian Penal Code. But, as is usual in cases of children from poor families going missing, they failed to trace the girl.

In November, five months after the minor went missing, Anjali spotted her aunt (Das’ missing daughter) on a motorcycle with one Mintu Miyan. Anjali was a playmate of the missing girl and was aware that her aunt was acquainted with the Muslim youth. That is how she could recognise Mintu Miyan. Anjali told him that her aunt seemed to be in a daze and was cowering in fear while travelling with the Muslim youth. She looked scared and terrified, Das was told by his grand niece. He also found Mintu Miyan’s phone number from his missing daughter’s notebook.

Das went to the police station immediately and told them about Mintu Miyan. The police, he alleged, were reluctant to take any action. Despite his repeated and impassioned pleas, the police did not raid Mintu Miyan’s house. Instead, he was summoned to Lalbazar (Kolkata Police headquarters) where Mintu Miyan and his family were also present. But the boy and his family denied even seeing the girl and having ever met her. Das pleaded with the police to search Mintu Miyan’s house, but the cops reportedly flatly refused to do so.

Das says he was told by the police that they are too scared to venture into Metiabruz to raid anyone’s house in search of a missing girl. Perhaps the gruesome murder of Kolkata Police Deputy Commissioner (Port), 35-year-old Vinod Kumar Mehta, who had gone into Garden Reach in search of criminals in early April 1984, still hangs heavy on the police force. Mehta was hacked to death, his eyes gouged out, and his body recovered hours later from a drain, bore repeated stab wounds. Mehta was an upright officer who had cracked down on criminals and smuggling rackets that thrive in the Garden Reach-Metiabruz area.

Desperate, Das then approached Calcutta High Court in January this year after realising that the police will not do anything to recover his missing minor daughter. The court issued orders to Kolkata Police on 16 February to raid the house of Mintu Miyan and recover the girl. The matter was listed for hearing again on 28 February. But luckily for the police, lawyers of Calcutta High Court went on a strike from 18 February – the strike is still on – and the police have thus gotten away by their inaction. Had the strike not happened, the police would have had to risk contempt of court by not carrying out the raids on Mintu Miyan’s house as directed by the court.

But that is not all. As news of police inaction and the fear of the police to venture into a Muslim-dominated area to rescue an abducted minor Dalit girl began to circulate on social media, the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) of Kolkata Police, Praveen Kumar Tripathi, tweeted a denial of the case on 17 April. His tweet read: “A false rumour being spread on social media about a missing minor girl held captive in a Metiabruz house and police being afraid of raiding house.Don’t believe in rumours being spread to create communal tension. All indulged in spreading rumour wud be severely dealt with.”

The tweet, while rubbing salt on Das’ open wounds, met with a barrage of ridicule. Many posted screenshots of reports that had appeared in some local newspapers, including Anandabazar Patrika, the leading Bengali daily, about the case. On 18 April (Wednesday), Das held a press meet at Kolkata Press Club, where he spoke about the case and appealed to the media to highlight police inaction in recovering his missing daughter. Strangely, not a single newspaper or television channel deemed it fit to report the case even though representatives from all media houses were present.

Das is helpless and desperate, but he hasn’t lost all hope. He is praying that the lawyers’ strike ends so that he can approach the High Court once again. He longs for the day to see his daughter, hug her, and feed her the candies that she was so fond of. He only hopes that the media and women’s activists had been responsive to his pleas and taken up his case. They haven’t.

[Primus]

For the few minutes I saw NaMo's townhall meeting in London, I saw some p*ssful wearing skull caps, beards looking dull, mournful, gloomy with no enthusiasm. If they did not like the guest, why be there?

Actually I saw some of them clapping and cheering in between too. They may have been Bohra muslims, who are AFAIK sympathetic to Modi.

Overall I was as usual very impressed by his responses. Nothing new in material as we all know the achievements already, but what was remarkable was his manner of speech, confidence in himself and absolute sincerity of purpose that is so transparent.

The most significant statement, in reply to the question by the Sikh youth about the secret of his energy was 'I am so used to eating 1 to 2 kilos of gaalis every day'.

Which is IMHO the biggest difference between Modi and all the opposition put together. Nobody else in Indian polity has had this much bile and vitriol thrown at him over the past two decades.

[KJo]

The most significant statement, in reply to the question by the Sikh youth about the secret of his energy was 'I am so used to eating 1 to 2 kilos of gaalis every day'.

This is actually very inspiring.
If Modiji as PM and with his performance has to eat so much gaalis, hum kis kheth ki mooli hai?
We can all incorporate this into our own lives because walking on the path of Dharma is not easy and you will have to eat gaalis.

Modi seems tired and a bit unwell from what I could tell. Job is not easy for someone in his late 60s. I hope he has someone watching his health and I hope he is developing a second level string of leaders.

[KL Dubey]

Modi seems tired and a bit unwell from what I could tell. Job is not easy for someone in his late 60s. I hope he has someone watching his health and I hope he is developing a second level string of leaders.

He looked fine to me, possibly some jet lag/travel tiredness. Just two weeks ago he looked very relaxed in the interaction with party members on founding day.

[Primus]

I am equally concerned about the health and well being of AS. Indians at this age tend to become afflicted with metabolic syndrome and its consequences and central obesity is a classic sign of this. Hope he has good physicians taking care of him. May the Gods protect both these Guardians of the Faith and the Nation.

[Kabir]

When Modi saab said that he thrives on 1 to 2 kgs of abuses everyday I almost had tears in my eyes. Wondered if he must have been the most abused person in Indian till date beating the likes of Godse and Dyer, but he may also be the most loved man ever. The abusers may be vitriolic but the love and blessings of Indians may be in tonnes compared to the Kgs of abuses he gets. His desire or iccha shakti to do something for the country is so strong that even Gods may not be able to stop him from doing his karma for the mother land. Its amazing to see all this maya play out. Our generation is lucky to have such an example and a drama unfold before us and living to see the light at the end of it all.

[fanne]

true that!!

[MehtaRahulC]

(1) PM's own website meant for opinion gathering allows fake voting !!

Petition.org etc websites allow email based voting. So one can generate 10000 fake email id and hire people and do fake voting. But after all it is private website. But NewIndia.in is central govt website. It is part of Modiji's NewIndia initiative. The website is created to get people's opinions on people's causes and proposals. This website is directly supervised by PM himself and his core team of RSS-leaders, RSS-workers and his hand picked officers. Now instead of confining voting to aadhar linked mobiles or at least mobiles, this website allows users with just any email id to vote !! IOW, one can make 1000 fake email IDs and cast 1000 votes to any number of causes !! IOW, fake voting is trivially easy on a website supervised by PMO itself !!! So much for sincerity in attempt to get public opinion.

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(2) The accused in Jammu Asifa case were working to expel Rohingye and Kashmiri muslim migrants into Jammu. They were threat to RSS's vote share

PDP and RSS = BJP leaders/workers have been very active in enabling Muslim migrants from Kashmir to settle into Jammu. And PDP and RSS leaders/workers are also very active in enabling Rohingye to settle into Jammu. Many Hinduvaadi activists in Jammu started opposing this. And they also started saying that RSS leaders/workers have all sold out. And they were openly talking about contesting elections in LS-2019 elections. They were threat to RSS's voteshare. RSS leaders and RSS workers want to "unite" Hindu voters. And so everyone who is likely to cut Hindu votes is enemy to them. And Chanakya has said that "destroy enemy completely". And RSS-leaders and RSS-workers love to follow Chanakya.

RSS-leaders have history of harassing anyone who is threat to their Hindu votebank. eg. in order to get DIRECT access to Dalit votebank, RSS-leaders worked to expedite (real or fake) cases against Sant Gurmeet Ram Rahimji and Sant Asaram Bapuji. In Gujarat, I know many VHP-activists who were implicated in false cases by policemen only because they were working to contest elections independently and were threat to RSS's goal of "uniting" all Hindu voters. Even in UP, many RSS-leaders are working to malign Yogiji becuase Yogiji was pushing "Yogi for PM in 2024" agenda.

My two points are

(a) I do NOT know whether allegations in Asifa Jammu case are true or false. To me they appear to be false. But till a Jury decides, I wont decide.

(b) if these allegations are fake, then not just PDP-leaders, but RSS-leaders also, can be behind these fake allegations.

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(2) Dear anti-Namo folks, pls get rhino skin

It saddens me to end that Hindus, time and again, are ready to sell their mother for power, wealth and status.

Anyone who opposes non-corrupt (*) but defunct Modiji, corrupt and defunct RSS-leaders (RSS=BJP) , corrupt and defunct RSS-workers is labeled as mother seller !!! This is sickening. But then what else is new on BRF? It has been customary to throw senseless attacks on all those who oppose RSS = BJP. This has been tactic of all RSS-workers since 1925. And lets not get into past. But in present days, anyone who doesnt vote for RSS is branded as traitor and what not. So my request to all who want to expose Modiji's defunctness and corruption of RSS-workers/leaders is -- pls get a rhino skin. And deont get deterred by abuses of Modivaadies.

(* - forum rules prohibit members from making allegation of corruption on Modiji !! So I have to say "defunct but not corrupt" for Modiji)

[SSundar]

Artificial Intelligence, GIS, big data helped in successful Bharat Bandh on April 2: US-based Dalit activists

http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/ ... 02736.html

Deelip Mhaske's Bio

I don't get this. Born a Poor Dalit, this guy seems to have been given a scholarship, attended good schools, graduated IIT, went to Ivy League schools in the USA and has lived a good life that most of his peer NRI/PIO/OCI populations wouldn't have gotten. YET he has an insatiable anger against India for "denying opportunities to Dalits"? How does that work?

Clearly, he became a dedicated AAPtard, ran in the 2014 elections and likely lost his deposit. So there is no denying his connections with AAP, Kejri and possibly the BIF ecosystem.

To round him out, he runs his own NGO that is funded by the shady underbelly of Madame Clinton's Gmail slush fund countries. That should leave NO doubt in anyone's mind about who he is.

Wouldn't be surprised if he is crypto EJ as well.

WHY did he expose himself now by giving an interview to MSM? Is he showing off or cocking a snook at MAD? He is signaling that he has the potential to move 100 constituencies in a direction he wants. IFF true, it does not make sense for him to come out now. What's the game?

Another question: US State Government contracts and proximity to Ombaba. That could make him a US citizen? How did he end up standing for an MP seat in India on behalf of AAP?

[chetak]

Now we know where the ATM money is going and why there is a shortage

NDTV Verified account @ndtv

Rs. 31 crore cash seized in Karnataka; included Congress, JD(S) handbills https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/rs-31-c ... ls-1839509 …

[chetak]

Listen if you have the time. Hits at the root of the Indian deep state.

https://youtu.be/ywumn8vLyMs

Chat with M R Venkatesh on the health of the Private Banks of India

[Sachin]

Naroda Patiya riots case: Maya Kodnani acquitted . This would lead to more heart burns in "secular" camp. Will this verdict have an impact in Gujarat?
Opposition parties meet to give shape to proposed CJI impeachment motion. Looks like the wet dreams of the Congress has not got over. The previous plan had completely fizzled out.

Mean while some one calls Lutyen's Delhi with a right term; a "parasite"
Lutyens’ Delhi is a ‘parasite’ urban space: Sunita Narain

[Chandragupta]

Artificial Intelligence, GIS, big data helped in successful Bharat Bandh on April 2: US-based Dalit activists

http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/ ... 02736.html

Deelip Mhaske's Bio

I don't get this. Born a Poor Dalit, this guy seems to have been given a scholarship, attended good schools, graduated IIT, went to Ivy League schools in the USA and has lived a good life that most of his peer NRI/PIO/OCI populations wouldn't have gotten. YET he has an insatiable anger against India for "denying opportunities to Dalits"? How does that work?

Clearly, he became a dedicated AAPtard, ran in the 2014 elections and likely lost his deposit. So there is no denying his connections with AAP, Kejri and possibly the BIF ecosystem.

To round him out, he runs his own NGO that is funded by the shady underbelly of Madame Clinton's Gmail slush fund countries. That should leave NO doubt in anyone's mind about who he is.

Wouldn't be surprised if he is crypto EJ as well.

WHY did he expose himself now by giving an interview to MSM? Is he showing off or cocking a snook at MAD? He is signaling that he has the potential to move 100 constituencies in a direction he wants. IFF true, it does not make sense for him to come out now. What's the game?

Another question: US State Government contracts and proximity to Ombaba. That could make him a US citizen? How did he end up standing for an MP seat in India on behalf of AAP?

Without doubt he is a crypto EJ and probably a pick of the EJs running AAP/BIF from US. Nobody gets ahead in US like that without the patronage of their agencies.

[Indrad]

Could this news be a plant to divert attention away from congress & mischief makers..once you read this you start getting convinced this was dalit spontaneous movement and no strings attached when matter of fact is one after another more news is coming how it was supported by various political parties across spectrum in India. ^

[Indrad]

https://twitter.com/Divsbabs/status/987225348747165696
audio tape exposes how donation is being embezzled in name of Justice for Asifa

[JohnTitor]

Modi needs to focus on getting fuel prices down. It'll be the next battlecry for congoons

[Hari Seldon]

Even the 'woke' psec ABP is now reporting this in Bangla - probably trying to salvage whatever cred they may have left.



Translation from this tweet: https://twitter.com/_trunils/status/974251755784425472

Popular Bengali daily Anandabazar reported "Hundreds of Rohingyas from Bangladesh, crossing the Indo-Bangla border and entering into Baruipur area of South 24 Parganas dist, WB.
Sk Shahjahan, TMC Panchayat Pradhan is assisting the Rohingya to settle there" http://www.anandabazar.com/state/crossi ... r-1.770676 …

[Hari Seldon]

This, IFF true, is way beyond the pale for even the INC.



Set up printing press in govt guest house, then print fake notes, then distribute in exchange for votes... Wah-wah. Even unkil sam cracks down real heavy on any attempt to mint the currency, shouldn't desi acronym agencies swoop down to investigate ties with ISI etc who have accumulated fake note printing expertise?

[chetak]

Unravelling PNB rot: Hong Kong module in over Rs 13,000 cr scam comes under India scanner

Unravelling PNB rot: Hong Kong module in over Rs 13,000 cr scam comes under India scanner

Yatish Yadav Apr 13, 2018

New Delhi: Investigators in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam have questioned many auditors in the country and have now zeroed-in on a cobweb of Hong Kong-based book-keepers who audit all Indian banks in the special administrative region of China.

Sleuths from various investigative agencies said they would soon be questioning Indian bank officials and auditors in Hong Kong. Sources revealed they are trying to verify antecedents of G Natarajan, the founder of Singapore-based certified public accountancy firm -- MGI N Rajan Associates.

They also seek to probe rotation norms of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which mandates change of auditors at regular interval, to find out if it was violated in the Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi episode -- a colossal loot of public money primarily through Punjab National Bank (PNB).

Little-known Chinese firms such as Charles H C Cheung & CPA Limited and W Y Lam & Co have been auditing PNB, State Bank of India (SBI), Allahabad Bank, Union Bank of India, Axis Bank, UCO Bank and Bank of India for the past few years.

The Firstpost investigation revealed that the bank’s board, audit committee and banking regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had approved these firms. Sources also confirmed that despite the massive scandal, they continue to audit around 10 banks in Hong Kong.

Charles H. C. Cheung & CPA Limited is a local accounting firm based in Sheung Wan and claims to have been established some 30 years ago. The company says it provides audit, accounting, taxation and company secretarial services to clients, both local and overseas from a variety of business sectors.

Charles Cheung of Charles H C Cheung & CPA Limited told the Firstpost that G Natarajan is principal auditor of almost all the public sector banks in Hong Kong on behalf of his firm. Charles further said they have been auditing the books of about 10 banks at Hong Kong including SBI, PNB, Allahabad Bank, Union Bank of India, Axis Bank, UCO Bank among others.

“We have been auditing the books for a very long time. Mr. Natarajan has vast experience as an auditor and I believe he is doing the bank audit works for the last 20-30 years. I do not exactly remember since when we have been auditing books of Indian banks but I can tell you that we are doing the audit as per the guidelines issued by Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA),” Charles said.

When contacted by Firstpost, W Y Lam & Co CPA located at Wan Chai, Hong Kong, confirmed about working with Indian banks but refused to divulge details of auditors and clients.

P S Somasekharan, a partner in MGI N Rajan Associates Singapore told Firstpost: “You may wish to kindly be in touch with Mr. G. Natarajan with regard to the information sought (auditing of Hong Kong based Indian banks). Our firm (Singapore based) has nothing to do with Charles Cheung & Co.”

A detailed questionnaire was sent to Shanthini, who looks after secretarial matters at MGI N Rajan Associates, seeking response from Natarajan. But no reply was received till the time of publishing this story.

Central investigative agencies – the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Income Tax Department, and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) -- intend to examine how banks could keep under the wraps huge fraud despite regular audits, said government sources. This raises serious questions: Why the serial attempts were not flagged even once in Hong Kong, despite balancing the books of Indian banks now linked to the Modi-Choksi scandal, for the whole period from 2010 to 2018? Did banks engage auditors who were also keeping the books of loan seekers?

A senior PNB officer in Hong Kong, requesting anonymity, told Firstpost that Natarajan and the Chinese audit firms were involved in auditing the books of his bank, but that no LoU and LC were raised on the bank. “Our bank branch at Hong Kong had no exposure to fraudulent LOUs and LCs. Even the Nostro account of our branch in Hong Kong is different from the PNB Nostro account that cleared credit, for Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi's firms, for other Indian government owned banks in Hong Kong,” he said.

To a question whether audit documents have been shared with the investigative agencies including the CBI and the ED, he confirmed that some papers were recently sent from Hong Kong to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) head office, but clarified that he was not aware about subsequent developments.

“Our Head Office has asked for certain documents, which we have forwarded. As per our internal procedure, we do not directly deal with central investigative agencies,” he further added.

Banks, RBI keep mum

Top sources in the investigative agencies said that during the questioning of bank officials, they asked for documents including audit reports lying with overseas branches of Indian banks, which have exposure to the massive banking fraud, to ascertain why the auditor failed to identify the scam and did not raise an alarm. Another aspect that investigators are going to explore is why the eligibility norms of the RBI were flouted in the auditor’s appointment in Hong Kong, ignoring the audit rotation requirement of the Indian banking regulator.

“It is possible that some banks may have developed comfortable working relationship with the Chinese audit firms. But, the bank officials’ connivance in putting things under the carpet also cannot be ignored. We are probing whether these Chinese firms are directly or indirectly linked. If they are auditing the defaulters, then there is a clear case of a deep entrenched network with bank officials. We will request our counterpart in Hong Kong for assistance to probe into the conduct of bank official’s," said sources in investigative agencies.

As far action against Chinese firms are concerned, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority needs to act, explained sources.

The PNB officer quoted above further revealed his bank is rotating auditing firms, though he admitted that audit process was not satisfactory.

When contacted by the Firstpost, the Chief Executive of the Union Bank of India in Hong Kong, Ashutosh Kumar, refused to confirm or deny the names of their auditors, and said that only the bank's headquarters in India is authorised to reveal such information.

An email sent to the Union Bank of India remained unanswered. A total of 77 LCs were raised to the Union Bank of India, Hong Kong, for Choksi owned Nakshtra, Gili India and Gitanjali Gems. Similarly other banks with exposure in the Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi scandal, namely UCO Bank, Allahabad Bank and SBI kept mum on Firstpost's queries on audit firms and why these banks failed to comply with RBI norms for audit rotation requirement. No response was received from these banks till the time of publishing the story.

Only Axis Bank responded to posers and confirmed that its Hong Kong Branch has availed the services of Charles H C Cheung and CPA Limited as External Auditors, whose appointment has been made after all necessary approvals. However the auditor made no adverse observation on buyers credit transactions out on the back of the PNB LoUs. Axis Bank’s official spokesperson said Axis Bank, Hong Kong (HK) Branch is recognised as a foreign branch of Axis Bank by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). M/s S. R. Batliboi & Co. LLP, an affiliate of the global audit firm, E&Y, is the bank’s statutory auditor, who also conducts the audit of Axis Bank's Hong Kong branch.

“In compliance with the HKMA regulations in Hong Kong, our HK Branch has availed of the services of Charles H C Cheung and CPA Limited as External Auditors, whose appointment has been made after all necessary approvals. No adverse observations were made by the said External Auditors on the buyers credit transactions carried out on the back of the Punjab National Bank(PNB) Letters of Undertaking (LOUs). It may be mentioned that none of the importer firms nor the exporter beneficiaries under the LoUs hold their banking accounts with Axis Bank, HK Branch. The Branch has provided buyers credit loan into the nostro account of PNB against their LoUs duly authenticated through the swift network,” Axis Bank official spokesperson said.

The CBI, which has arrested and interrogated two internal auditors of PNB - MK Sharma and Bishnubrata Mishra, suspects that external auditors in overseas Indian bank’s branches may have helped the bankers keep the skeletons in the closet.

“We are calling bank officials in overseas branches for questioning to probe into buyers credit extended to Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. So far many bank officials from Canara Bank, Bahrain, Bank of India Antwerp, SBI Frankfurt and Mauritius branch is being examined in the scam, which has now touched Rs.13,578 Crore but could go up in the coming days,” the investigators argued.

The RBI did not respond to queries on the issue of appointment of auditors in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority responded, stating that it would not comment on the affairs of individual institutions.

On the issue of appointment, review and rotation of an auditor, the HKMA's official spokesperson said these issues have been left to the banks to take decision as per their satisfaction. “In case where a bank is required to procure the service of an audit firm, the management of the bank have to satisfy themselves that the service will be performed by qualified and competent professionals,” the HKMA official said.

Future course of action

According to top sources, the senior management of Indian banks exposed to the Modi-Choksi scandal are worried that re-auditing of books could reveal a lot of mess that may expose other defaulters and banking irregularities. They said there are three action points, which need to be taken by the RBI and Indian banks -

Firstly, Indian banks in Hong Kong should be asked to get the last seven-years' accounts re-audited by top accountancy firms.

Secondly, the RBI should send its own team to audit the books.

Thirdly, Indian Banks should file a complaint to the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA) and the Financial Reporting Council Hong Kong about the shoddy job done by Indian bankers.

“The banks should be subjected to a review of their audit reports to identify if these transactions in the PNB scam were identified but not reported or if these were not even identified, which would suggest that they did not employ very basic internal banking process. It seems not only their systems were failing but the bank officials were also deliberately failing the system. If the checks and balances at PNB were missing, what about the other banks?” sources asked, indicating agencies' future course of action.

Unravelling PNB Rot Part 2: Secret trip by Indian bankers to Hong Kong to cover up scam under scanner

Unravelling PNB Rot Part 2: Secret trip by Indian bankers to Hong Kong to cover up scam under scanner

Yatish Yadav Apr 16, 2018

New Delhi: Days after the mammoth Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud involving diamond merchants Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi surfaced, two officials of an Indian public sector bank (PSB) made a secret trip to Hong Kong. Their travel was planned during the Chinese New Year (16-19 February) and the primary objective was to utilise the auspicious time to cover-up and prepare documentation with backdates. The surreptitious rendezvous has come under the scanner of Indian investigative agencies because a large chunk of buyer’s credit was raised by PNB's Mumbai branch to various government-owned banks in Hong Kong to facilitate companies owned by the diamantaires.

“The bank officials are suspected to have been amending documents to justify decisions and allegedly erased paper-trails that may cause trouble in future. It has come to our notice that some overseas branches of the Indian banks are not providing information on transactions liked to Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi citing Hong Kong law, which prohibits them from sharing information under the Hong Kong Personal Data Privacy Ordinance (PDPO). However, the argument is contradictory as they can share details by categorising the case as fraudulent,” sources in the investigative agencies told Firstpost.

They also pointed out that a huge cover-up is taking place and that the senior management of banks, including PNB, are trying to push things under the carpet. There is a huge failure on part of the internal and external auditors and bank officials in Hong Kong, who should have been able to spot a problem in at least one transaction in one bank, they said.

“Most LoUs were discounted without any counter verification by the issuing branch and with disregard to other Reserve Bank of India (RBI) policies and normal banking guidelines and procedures. So it is suspected that they had to fix those decisions. The bank officials will soon be called for questioning,” investigators claimed.

Indian banks at Hong Kong having an exposure in the Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi fraud are not financially affected because PNB had no other option but to honour all the credits. But the incident has brought Indian banks operating in the Chinese administrative region under the scanner because not a single query was put forth to the issuing bank over fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) and letters of credit (LCs) carrying huge sums.

A senior officer of the PNB at Hong Kong, requesting anonymity, said he was surprised after the scam broke out because his bank has its branch in Hong Kong but not a single LoU or LC was raised to the branch. Generally, a bank passes the buyer's credit or LoUs business to its own branch. So, why did the PNB bank branch in Hong Kong not question why other banks were getting this business and why it wasn't.

He told the Firstpost over the phone from Hong Kong that his staff was not aware about LoUs and LCs going to other Indian PSBs. “Otherwise, we would have asked the Head Office to pass on this business to us,” he revealed.

To a question whether PNB Hong Kong has suffered any exposure in the Nirav Modi-Choksi scam, the officer confirmed that only one account was impaired, causing a roughly $5 million loss to the bank. “It was a loan issued to Firestar Diamond owned by Nirav Modi. Since it was just one bad account in our books, the team did not raise any alarm,” he further added.

The burning question

While investigative agencies -- the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Income Tax Department (IT-D) -- are gearing up to grill Hong Kong-based current and former executives of Union Bank of India, PNB, Allahabad Bank and UCO Bank in Nirav Modi-Choksi case, they are perplexed by the fact that buyers' credit was discounted by bankers without any counter verification by the issuing branch.

It is learnt that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) had subjected PNB at Hong Kong to a review in 2017 since it was allegedly found to be tampering with NPAs and write-offs in 2016. But as far as a review of other banks were concerned, the HKMA played a passive role.

Questions sent to the Union Bank of India, UCO bank, Allahabad Bank, PNB and the State Bank of India (SB), remained unanswered till the time of publishing this story.

A source said the HKMA cares least as Indian Banks' failures are guaranteed by the Government of India. This is precisely the reason, he claimed, that the Punjab National Bank has been asked by the government to honour all fraudulent LoUs to ensure there is no impact on overseas centers of Indian Banks.

A total 146 LCs were raised to UCO Bank, Hong Kong for Mehul Choksi-owned Nakshatra, Gili India and Gitanjali Gems to the tune of $247 million which PNB needs to pay to UCO Bank. A mail was sent to UCO Bank’s Managing Director R K Takkar and PNB seeking their official comment, but no reply was received.

On a question of supervision and action on default and irregularities, an official spokesperson of the HKMA told Firstpost that they expect banks in Hong Kong to carry out their business in a prudent and professional manner. Banks should also put in place proper systems of control to ensure that their risk exposure is effectively managed, the spokesperson said.

“In respect of management of non-performing loans, our supervisory guidelines require banks to have effective systems to identify such loans, set aside sufficient provisions and write-off such loans when it becomes clear that the loans are not recoverable. Where we are of the view that a bank does not have effective systems for its lending business, we will follow up with the bank management and where appropriate the head office and home supervisor of the bank. We will also consider taking suitable supervisory actions,” the HKMA official said.

To a question whether Indian banks operating in Hong Kong are running in losses and accumulating bad debts and whether HKMA had ordered a review of those accounts, the HKMA official refused to divulge any details. According to sources, most banks have suffered losses in Hong Kong and there are as many as four big defaulters, besides Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, but no action has been initiated by the HKMA.

Investigators said they have received complaints that an Indian PSB had also cleared huge sums to two large firms in Hong Kong that turned NPAs. The officer in charge of the bank is now back in India and is likely to be questioned soon.

A source closely monitoring Indian PSBs operations in Hong Kong said the NPAs of these groups together runs into thousands of crores. “The accounts of some banks submitted to the HKMA in September are cleverly camouflaged, but a closer look indicates that half of all trade finance loans in Hong Kong are impaired. A majority of loans are LoUs and LC-related that banks don’t categorise as NPAs. Actually, the reporting is done in a manner that doesn’t look alarming in the documents. Their total losses (all banks combined) in Hong Kong in bad loans could easily exceed $1 billion,” he said.

Bankers slept over manipulation

Investigators are surprised that while the Indian government is trying to nab Nirav Modi in Hong Kong, lenders are not acting against him -- if they file a complaint to the Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), it would be easy to get him behind bars. Some of the Indian banks in Hong Kong, which have financed Nirav Modi, are qualified to use the provisions but have not done so yet.

It appears, investigators claimed, LC frauds started after a successful run of LoUs for a number of years. As per the law, if there is a defaulter in Hong Kong, he or she can be put under prohibition orders. Most fraudulent LCs were small amounts ($5,00,000 to $20,00,000) but were inflated to around $1,00,00,000 by amendments. These amendments were done by SWIFT messages and were not updated in the CBS. These LCs were issued for different suppliers, all of which were Nirav Modi's firms in Hong Kong, Antwerp, New York, Mauritius and eslewhere. So, the money was not only siphoned off, but also inflated.

How it all began

The bank was issuing LCs to Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi's firms. There were genuine LCs issued at first, for example $500,0000. Subsequently, each LCs were amended on SWIFT and inflated by almost 20 times.

Investigators grilling some bank officials posted in Antwerp, Bahrain and Mauritius are posing two basic questions: Why did the Indian banks discount those LCs and not see anything wrong in so many amendments to each of these LCs for almost eight years? And why did the bank never raise a question as to why all amendments were communicated only by SWIFT and there were no other communication between the banks?

Investigative agencies are yet to accept the theory floated by the top management of PNB that the fraud happened in just one branch and others including the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) were not aware about it. Sources said that LoUs and LCs are 95 percent of Indian banks' trade finance business and it is impossible to buy the argument that both LoUs and LCs were missed out by the PNB treasury department's daily reconciliation process of their Nostro accounts, daily monitoring process, management monitoring, credit monitoring, internal audit, special audits, statutory audits and by RBI audits.

“There are so many layers of inspection but Punjab National Bank, and discounting public sector banks abroad quietly accepted the irregularities including fake amendments. This fraud is not only large in size but also large in terms of number of banks and people involved and is suspected to be getting large in the cover-up exercise,” sources added

[Aditya_V]

Am I the Only one but there seems to Panic int he INC camp, putting an impeachment notice which will be rejected by the VP. Demonstrating over all and Sundry. They are exposing thier Networks that except for thier base of Hardcore minorities everyone else is seeing through the game. Thier strength of sutilty and playing the psy-ops game is going and all thier groups are pubilically exposing themselves.

[Sachin]

Am I the Only one but there seems to Panic int he INC camp, putting an impeachment notice which will be rejected by the VP.

There are 60 folks who have signed the impeachment notice. So don't know if the VP can outright reject it? The Congress really seems to have blown a fuse after the Justice Loya Death case did not go their expected way. In the mean while the ever popular CPI(M) is having a "Party Congress" at Hyderabad; but many feel that the party has already become a (B Team of) "Congress".

[Aditya_V]

Sir, All he has to give some reasons- I am sure there is a legal team and reject it. Nothing else INC can do unless they win 2019.