PNB fraud: Fear staff will lynch me, Mehul Choksi tells CBI

Mumbai: Absconding jeweller Mehul Choksi, who is an accused in the PNB bank fraud case, on Wednesday claimed through his lawyer before a special CBI court that there is a threat to his life due to which he is not disclosing his current location. He also said that he is unable to travel due to his medical condition. The threat to his life is from his employees, who have not received their salaries and other people who are dealing with his companies and are facing problems because of him.

The application has been filed to cancel the non-bailable warrant (NBW) against him.  Meanwhile, an accused in a case registered against diamantaire Nirav Modi has filed an application before the PMLA court, challenging applicability of provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and seeking transfer of the case to the CBI court.

Advocate Sanjay Abbot on behalf of Choksi, the prime accused in the over Rs 7,000 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, on Wednesday moved an application before the special CBI judge JC Jagdale seeking cancellation of the NBW issued against him.

According to Choksi, he could not personally appear before the ED because he is suffering from heart disease and needs constant monitoring by doctors, revocation of his passport and threat to his life, which he has already mentioned in his communication to the ED. However, the agency didn’t consider these aspects and filed an application for issuance of an NBW against him.

Choksi, in his application, has also spoken about incidents of mob lynching. According to him, there is a trend of mob lynching in an attempt to give justice on the road by the general public. He claimed that his existing employees whose salaries and dues have not been paid because of freezing of accounts, families of arrested employees, the landlords whose premises the companies had taken on rent, who have not been paid their dues, the customers whose jewellery in showroom have been taken away by the ED and creditors of supplies and services, who have not been paid their dues have grievances and anger against him and, hence, he is feels there is a threat to his life and he is unable to travel.

The court has asked the CBI to file a reply on this application and deferred the hearing till July 11.