Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday submitted a 7,000-page chargesheet in the Rs 13,400-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam in a special court, where it mentioned charges against 22 people — including absconding billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, his brother Nishal Modi and their firm’s executive Subhash Parab — and three private firms. The chargesheet pertains to the CBI’s first FIR, which detected a scam of Rs 6.280 crore. Among the accused are the bank’s former chief Usha Ananthas-ubramanian, who is now Allahabad bank CEO and MD.
Ananthasubramanian was the MD and CEO of PNB from 2015 to 2017 and was questioned recently by the CBI in connection with the case. The agency has also named PNB executive directors K.V. Brahmaji Rao and Sanjiv Sharan and general manager (international operations) Nehal Ahad in the chargesheet. The chargesheet also made accused three companies namely Diamond R US, Solar exports and Stellar Diamonds of Nirav Modi. The court is yet to take cognisance of the chargesheet. The bank had in January uncovered the alleged fraud in which several bank officials were accused of colluding with the accused to issue fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs), for their companies to raise loans from overseas branches of mostly Indian banks.
A. Limosin, the CBI prosecutor in the case, said that the chargesheet does not include the names of Ami Modi, the wife of Nirav Modi, and his uncle and business partner Mehul Choksi. According to Mr Limosin, the role of Choksi may come up when the CBI files its supplementary chargesheets in the case related to the probe into Choksi’s Gitanjali Group.
The chargesheet primarily deals with the first FIR registered in the case relating to the fraudulent issuance over Rs 6,498.20 crore worth of LoUs to Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds. The CBI has registered three separate FIRs in connection with the alleged fraud in the public sector bank by the companies of Nirav Modi and Choksi, both of whom had left the country before PNB filed the complaint with the CBI.
