EXCLUSIVE: ABP News reaches Antwerp to track down diamantaire Nirav Modi

CBI this morning arrested Gokulnath Shetty (retired DGM of PNB), Manoj Kharat (then single window officer of PNB), Hemant Bhat, Authorised Signatory of the Nirav Modi Group of Firms. They will be produced today before CBI special court (CR 51) Mumbai.

Nirav Modi's house in Antwerp.

New Delhi: ABP News in its investigation to track diamantaire Nirav Modi reached Belgium’s Antwerp city where the designer, himself a celebrity, grew up and gave launch to a brand by his own name. Antwerp is the diamond capital of the world and it is said that Nirav juggles between Antwerp, Mumbai and couple of other major cities where his major businesses are set up. Antwerp is  at a distance of  55 kms from capital Brussels. ABP News correspondent Poonam Joshi visited Antwerp to tracks Nirav Modi’s residence and office. The jewellery tycoon owns a sprawling house called 44 in the plushest locality of the city. It is said that his parents and brother Nishal live in this house. “From outside, we could see someone watching television and flipping channels in a huge drawing room. It can’t be said who was present in the house,” said Joshi. Also at his office named Firestar Diamond Bvba, the staff was tightlipped about Nirav. A   few diamond merchants of the Indian community in the Antwerp admitted knowing Nirav Modi personally but were equally shocked to know how such a scam worth Rs 11,400 crore could executed without the connivance of senior officials of Punjab and National Bank. “If we ask for one lakh dollar, we will get rejected by the banks. So the bank must have known clearly the amount of money that has been sanctioned to him,” said a trader.