PNB fraud case updates: Finance ministry might seek Banks Board Bureau's inputs to see if a PNB top brass rejig is possible

Vipul Ambani taken to be produced at special CBI court for his alleged connection with Nirav Modi-PNB scam in Mumbai on Wednesday. PTI[/caption]They also include Kavita Mankikar, an executive assistant and authorised signatory with three firms of the Firestar group, and Firestar's senior executive Arjun Patil - who were both named in the original FIR lodged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after the scam was reported by PNB.There is also Nakshatra Group and Gitanjali Group's CFO Kapil Khandelwal and Gitanjali Group's manager Niten Shahi - both group companies owned by Choksi."Ambani was fully aware of the fraudulent and illegal LoUs issued by Shetty who was a deputy manager at PNB's Brady House branch in Mumbai. (This was being done) in conspiracy and (under the) guidance of Nirav Modi and other employees of his firm," a senior CBI official told IANS in New Delhi.The CBI official said the agency during its probe found that Ambani not only visited and met PNB's officials at the Brady House branch but also met other bank officials in Mumbai and New Delhi.The official also said that they have seized documents during searches at the office of Firestar at Peninsula Business Park in Mumbai's Lower Parel that "prove" that Ambani knew what was being done.The arrests and remand came in the CBI's ongoing investigations into the alleged fraudulent transactions perpetrated through 150 Letters of Undertaking (LoU) and other acts committed by them in the PNB fraud unearthed at the Brady House Branch in south Mumbai last week.Earlier, the CBI had arrested Bechhu Tiwari, the PNB's chief manager who was in-charge of Forex Department, Yashwant Joshi, a Scale II Manager in the same department and Praful Sawant, a Scale I Officer in Exports section.Last Saturday the CBI had arrested three persons, including two retired PNB officials - former DGM Gokulnath Shetty and Single Window Operator Manoj Kharat, besides Hemant Bhat, the authorised signatory for Nirav Modi Group.All the six above have been sent to police custody till 5 March.With inputs from IANS