After filing chargesheet in the Nirav Modi bank fraud case, the CBI on Wednesday filed its second chargesheet against billionaire jeweller Mehul Choksi and 17 other entities, including companies owned by him and other individuals, in connection with the over $2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam. The fresh 12,000-page chargesheet has reportedly named Nirav’s business partner and uncle Mehul Choksi as “wanted”.
The development comes a day after PNB recorded a huge loss worth Rs 13,417 crore in its fourth-quarter net loss on Tuesday. This came as a huge jolt as the company’s shares were trading 12 per cent lower.
In the chargesheet, pertaining to an FIR against Choksi, the Gitanjali group of companies and 16 other entities (including companies and individuals), the agency has slapped charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The CBI chargesheet against jeweller Mehul Choksi concentrates on six letters of Undertaking (loUs) and six FlCs amounting to Rs 512 crore of the alleged over Rs 7,000-crore loss caused to PNB by Choksi.
CBI sources said this was a separate chargesheet from the one filed on May 14 against Choksi’s nephew Nirav and stressed that the present chargesheet pertained to the FIR against Choksi. Supplementary chargesheets against Nirav will also be filed soon, they said. The FIR was lodged on the basis of a complaint from the PNB, dated February 13.
Earlier on Monday, in a chargesheet filed in a special court in Mumbai, the CBI named several other top officials of the bank, including former PNB chief Usha Ananthasubramanian. The agency had also named PNB executive directors KV Brahmaji Rao and Sanjiv Sharan, and general manager (international operations) Nehal Ahad in its chargesheet.
According to the CBI, the alleged loss to the bank was over Rs 4,886 crore, arising out of 143 loUs and 224 Foreign letters of Credit issued to the companies of Choksi, the officials said, adding the total loss, allegedly perpetrated by the jeweller and his nephew Nirav — both absconding — was over $2 billion.
It is alleged that the accused PNB officials, in a conspiracy with private persons, had sent the unauthorised loUs and Foreign letters of Credit to overseas branches of Indian banks for release of funds to the accused companies’ suppliers or to clear the liabilities of the accused companies.
The accused PNB officials allegedly did not enter the instructions for these loUs in their internal software to avoid scrutiny. They were sent through an international messaging system for banking called SWIFT, used to pass instructions among banks globally to transfer funds.
An loU is a guarantee given by an issuing bank to Indian banks that have branches abroad to grant short-term credit to an applicant. In case of default, the bank issuing the loU has to pay the liability to the credit-giving bank. The scam, which reportedly began in 2011, was detected in the third week of January this year, after which the PNB officials reported it to the concerned agencies.