PNB fraud case: The chargesheet basically deals with the first FIR registered in the case relating to the fraudulent issuance over Rs 6,000 crore of Letters of Undertaking to Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday filed its first chargesheet in the alleged Rs 13,400 crore fraud involving diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, PTI has reported. In the chargesheet, the agency has detailed the role of the bank’s former chief Usha Ananthasubramanian, who is now Allahabad Bank CEO and MD, officials said.
According to PTI, the CBI chargesheet, filed in Mumbai Sessions Court, also names several other top officials of the bank including PNB executive directors K V Brahmaji Rao and Sanjiv Sharan, and general manager (international operations) Nehal Ahad.
According to officials, the agency, in its chargesheet, has detailed the roles of Nirav Modi, his brother Nishal Modi and Subhash Parab, an executive in Nirav Modi’s company. The chargesheet basically deals with the first FIR registered in the case relating to the fraudulent issuance over Rs 6,000 crore of Letters of Undertaking to Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds.
However, the CBI has not given in detail the role of Mehul Choksi in the present chargesheet. Choksi’s role is likely to come up when the CBI files supplementary chargesheets in the case related to the probe of the Gitanjali group.
Between January and March, the CBI filed three FIRs in the case — against Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and also against Modi’s company Firestar Diamonds. Both Modi and Choksi had left the country before PNB filed the complaint with the CBI.
The agency made its first arrest on February 17 including of the alleged key accused Gokulnath Shetty (former deputy General manager of PNB), Manoj Kharat (single window operator of PNB) and Hemant Bhat (authorised signatory of Modi’s company). On February 20, it made its first high profile arrest by arresting Vipul Ambani, president (finance) of Firestar International.
The others arrested are Bechhu Tiwari (then chief manager in the Forex department of PNB), Yashwant Joshi (scale II manager in the Forex department), Praful Sawant (scale-I officer handling exports section), Manish Bosamiya (former AGM of operations in Firestar International Ltd owned by Modi), Miten Pandia (then Financial manager of Firestar), Sanjay Rambhia (auditor of Firestar), Aniyath Shiv Raman Nair (then director of Gili India Ltd, a Gitanjali Group firm owned by Choksi), Vipul Chitalia (VP banking operations of Gitanjali group).
(With PTI inputs)