Former PNB MD misled RBI: CBI chargesheet

Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chargesheet in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case, which was recently submitted to a city court, has claimed that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had issued an urgent questionnaire in October 2016, seeking specific response from the PNB authorities on operational procedures for the issuance of letters of undertaking (LoUs), including the SWIFT mechanism. According to the chargesheet, the then PNB MD and CEO Usha Ananthasubramanian and other bank officials had dealt with the said letter, but a misleading reply had been allegedly sent to the RBI.

Ananthasubramanian was among the PNB officials chargesheeted in the case.

The chargesheet says that a similar fraud, in respect of SWIFT transaction, was detected in 2016 and hence the RBI had issued a circular dealing with Cyber Security Controls and SWIFT operations of banks wherein RBI advised the banks to get SWIFT infrastructure audited comprehensively and ensure strict vigil on the transactions made through SWIFT. But still during investigation it was found that the sanctity of the SWIFT message was used to transmit the fraudulent LoUs.

According to the chargesheet, “The accused PNB officials MD & CEO Usha Ananthsubrama-nian, K.V. Brahmaji Rao, Sanjiv Sharan and Nehal Ahad, GM International Banking Division were aware of this fraud and yet they did not take any corrective action and remained silent spectator and thereby facilitated continuance of the fraud by other accused public servants resulting in wrongful loss to PNB.”

“It is also in evidence that senior officers of Nirav Modi group entities like Vipul Ambani were meeting her (Ananthasubramanian) in order to continue with the credit facilities to the group entities. This also indicates clearly that she was aware of the facilities extended to various group entities of Nirav Modi,” read the chargesheet.