PNB scam: This temple in India holds special prayers to bring Nirav Modi back

As the country is yet to recover from the scam that hit India's state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB), the priests and devotees of a Hyderabad temple are seeking divine intervention to bring diamantaire Nirav Modi, who is accused of the multimillion fraud, back to India and face the law. The devotees are hopeful that their prayers would help the country's banking industry to cruise through the troubling times. 

A special pooja -- Chakrabaja Madala Arachana-- was performed on February 18 at Chilkur Balaji Temple in Ranga Reddy district, located around 40 kilometers from Hyderabad, to save the scam-hit PNB from the crisis and correct the failed banking system. Thousands of devotees participated in the ritual, reports said. 

The Chilkur Balaji Temple is one of the oldest in Hyderabad. The head priests, Dr Soundararajan and CS Gopalakrishna, are confident that such an invocation will help the recovery of money from the defaulters, however big they are, the ANI reported quoting a press release.

Thousands of devotees in the temple have chanted the Runa Vimochana Nrusimha Stotram, a special chanting invoking the Lion God. The priests also urged people to repeat the chantings to bring the "failed banking system" back on the right track, the ANI report added.

Last week, the state-run PNB disclosed a fraud amounting to Rs 11,000 crore allegedly by billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi, his family members, and business partner Mehul Choksi.

Nirav Modi had left India before the massive financial fraud came to light. Both the CBI and Enforcement Directorate have started investigations against them. The external affairs ministry has suspended the passports of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi for four weeks.

Following the scam, eight employees of PNB were suspended on February 16 from their post for their suspected involvement in the fraud case.