PNB scam: 6 accused, including retd GM in 14-day judicial custody

Mumbai: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Saturday sent six accused, arrested in connection with the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case including Gokulnath Shetty, to 14 days judicial custody.

Shetty, the retired deputy manager of the bank's foreign exchange department at the Brady House branch in Mumbai, was arrested by the CBI for helping jeweller Nirav Modi in conducting fraudulent transactions for over Rs 11,000 crores.

According to the CBI, Gokulnath Shetty and another bank employee Manoj Kharat issued eight letters of understanding (LOU) worth over Rs 280 crores to Nirav Modi's company just three months before Shetty retired in May 2017. The LOUs were issued in February. The due date mentioned was January 2018.

The Punjab National Bank detected a USD 1.77 billion scam in which Modi acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking from one of its branches for overseas credit from other Indian lenders.

The scam was started in 2011 and was detected in the third week of January this year, after which the PNB officials reported it to the concerned agencies.

Meanwhile, the PNB filed a second complaint with the CBI on February 13.

The CBI had received the complaint from the PNB on January 28 and a case was registered in the case on January 31.