Express News Service
NEW DELHI: The CBI on Wednesday filed its chargesheet against billionaire jeweller Mehul Choksi and 17 other entities, including companies owned by him and other individuals, in connection with the over $2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam.
In the charge sheet of over 13,000 pages, pertaining to an FIR against Choksi, the Gitanjali group of companies, former MD & CEO of PNB Usha Ananthasubramanian, senior PNB officials KV Brahmaji Rao, Sanjiv Sharan and others, the agency has slapped charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, the officials said.
According to the CBI officials, the agency has filed 2,400 documents, statements of 79 persons and details of raids conducted in 52 places before a special CBI court in Mumbai According to the CBI, PNB Deputy Manager Gokul Nath Shetty, who played an important role in the conspiracy took Rs 1 crore as bribe to pass Letters of Understanding (LoU).All 18 entities including three companies Gitanjali Gems Ltd, Gili India Ltd and Nakshatra Brand Ltd committed a fraud of Rs 7,080.86 crore (approx) perpetrated on the PNB.
“It was alleged that the accused persons had hatched a criminal conspiracy and had defrauded the PNB to the tune of Rs 7,080.86 crores (approx) by fraudulently issuing LoU to overseas banks for obtaining Buyer’s Credit and also issuing Foreign Letters of Credit in favour of the three companies of said MMD without any sanctioned limit or cash margin & without making entries in the CBS system of the bank,” CBI said in a press statement.
