How did Nirav shell firm get govt nod for solar plant?
Not many people are aware that Nirav Modi, the main accused in the Rs 13,700-crore Punjab National Bank fraud case owns a solar power plant near Khandala in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. Indiatoday.in investigated the matter and found some shocking facts, which raise questions on how the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) awarded the contract without doing a thorough background check. In March 2018, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) provisionally attached this solar power plant and 134 acres of land belonging to Nirav Modi, worth Rs 60 crore. It is a photovoltaic (PV) project with a power capacity of 5 megawatt (MW) under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). Information accessed by Indiatoday.in reveals that the solar plant, which is currently operated by NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN), is owned by two shell companies of Nirav Modi's -- Camelot Enterprises and Firestone Trading. These companies were floated and managed by Nirav Modi and his bogus directors. NVVN, a trading body and subsidiary of public sector power giant NTPC, handles solar plants across India. In a telephonic conversation from New Delhi, Arun Kumar Garg, chief executive officer of NVVN confirmed to Indiatoday.in that "the solar plant in Khandala is owned by Firestone Trading and at present is operated by NVVN's management team". The list of commissioned solar projects with Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co shows that the date of commissioning of this solar plant was September 6, 2012.' Investigators have raised serious questions as to how MNRE and its officials shortlisted a shell company (Firestone Trading) for a solar project during the bidding process. "It looks like, no ground check of the company, the directors, the source of income and its experiences in solar power sector were done by MNRE," an investigator said. After the exposure of the PNB fraud, the list of shell companies being probed by multi-agencies in India was tabled before Parliament by the concerned ministries. The list includes both these companies -- Firestone Trading and Camelot Enterprises. As per the records from Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), the last annual general meetings of both the shell companies were held on August 30, 2017 and its balance sheet was last filed on March 31, 2017. These companies share a common email id companysecretary@firestardiamond.com and a common director -- Hemant Bhatt. Interestingly Bhatt, a close confidant of Nirav Modi, was among the first to be arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the PNB fraud case. Investigations revealed that Bhatt was the director in 15 of Modi's firms. Despite, being provisionally attached by the ED, the solar plant is operational and is being managed by NVVN. ED has directed NVVN to deposit the revenue collection coming out of Modi's solar plant into a separate bank account and keep informing them about the issue on a regular basis. "We have been directed by ED not to handover any revenue generated from the solar plant to Nirav Modi. NVVN is following the directions," NVVN's CEO Garg told Indiatoday.in.