Gitanjali top honcho Vipul Chitalia held in PNB scam

Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested 

Vipul Chitalia, vice-president (banking operations) of the Gitanjali Group, whose founder 

Mehul Choksi is one of the main accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam. 

A CBI team had detained Chitalia from the airport earlier in the day and he was taken to the agency’s office in Bandra-Kurla Complex for detailed questioning. 

The officials said that Chitalia was at the helm of the affairs when Choksi’s ventures indulged in ‘illegalities’. 

The accused was behind the drafting of documents for securing Letters of Undertaking (LoU) and Foreign Letters of Credit (FLC) from the banks. 

His name came on the agency’s radar during questioning of other officials of Choksi’s group of companies. 

The officials grilled Chitalia based on the documents that were seized from various office premises during the series of raids recently. Upon ascertaining his role in the scam, he was placed under arrest.

“The probe has revealed that he headed banking-related operations for Gitanjali Group and was closely coordinating with the banks on the group’s behalf. He was also close to Choksi and seems to be one of the big players in the scam,” said a CBI officer. 

“It is alleged that he was responsible for handling the unauthorised LoUs and FLCs and maintaining contact with bank officials. He allegedly escaped to Dubai with Choksi in the first week of January before the matter was reported to the CBI. He returned to India today when he was detained,” added the officer.

Chitalia’s is nineteenth arrest in the case by the CBI. The businessman was produced before the CBI court on Tuesday, which remanded him in custody till March 17. Officials said he would be confronted with other accused in the case face to face to further investigate the allegations and verify the roles of other senior employees of the group. 

The ED, meanwhile, conducted searches at five of Choksi’s offices on Monday and seized score of incriminating documents. The ED officials said that the seizures were to verify records to ascertain if the transactions were towards shell companies or they existed beyond paper. 

These documents will be scrutinised and each transaction will be verified to ascertain if it was authentic or not. In case it took place, the agency will verify the credentials of the other company to conclude if the said company is a shell company or not. 

The CBI last Wednesday arrested Gokulnath Shetty, then-deputy manager, now retired, in the case. He was in judicial custody. He was produced in CBI court which remanded him in police custody till March 15.  CBI officials, meanwhile, questioned four more employees of the PNB’s treasury department on Tuesday. They include general manager and assistant general manager-rank officers.