Congress says Nirav Modi's PNB fraud is ‘system failure’

NEW DELHI : Congress on Thursday said, on the Nirav Modi fraud case, that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had received a complaint against alleged bank fraud involving Nirav Modi and Punjab National Bank on July 26, 2016, and that corrective action should have been taken then.

Officials familiar with the matter said the letter was forwarded to appropriate authorities as is the norm.

The principal Opposition party also claimed the fraud brought both banking regulation and bank risk management systems into question and that the government needs to explain how systems “failed”. Congress spokespersons said there are questions about who’s in charge and at what level “complicity” lies.


Rahul Gandhi, Congress chief, tweeted on the issue, making a pointed reference to a photo taken in Davos which showed Nirav Modi among several others in a group photo of Indian businessmen with the prime minister.

Gandhi’s tweet alleged that Nirav Modi had “used his clout” to “steal `12,000 crore” and then “slipped out” of the country.

MEA has said in a statement businessmen in the photo had no connection with the PM’s official delegation and law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also responded to Congress and Gandhi’s allegations