The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday, December 16, registered two new fresh cases against fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi and others for allegedly cheating consortiums of banks to the tune of Rs 6,300 crore. In the FIR, the agency has named Gitanjali Gems, Nakshatra Brands, Mehul Choksi, Gitanjali Gems Director Dhanesh Sheth, Kapil Khandelwal Joint President (Finance), Chief Financial Officer Chandrakant Karkare, unknown public servants, and unknown persons.
The FIRs have been filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 120B, 409, 420, and 477A.
The first FIR alleged that the accused persons caused a wrongful loss of Rs 5,564.54 crore to a consortium of 28 member banks led by ICICI Bank. The second FIR alleged that the accused caused a loss of Rs 807.72 crore to a consortium of three member banks led by Punjab National Bank.
Choksi, who was the chairman and managing director as well as part of the promoter group of Gitanjali Gems, is the maternal uncle of Nirav Modi — both are facing charges of defrauding state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) of more than Rs 14,000 crore.
Choksi and Modi fled India after the PNB scam came to light in early 2018. While Choksi is said to be in Antigua and Barbuda, Modi is lodged in a British jail and has just lost his bid to take his fight against extradition to the UK Supreme Court. The duo allegedly bribed officials of the state-run bank to get letters of undertaking (LoUs), on the basis of which they availed loans from overseas banks that remained unpaid.
The allegedly corrupt bank officials did not enter these LoUs in the core banking software of PNB, thus evading scrutiny. The non-payment of these LoUs or bank guarantees worth Rs 13,500 crore resulted in default and became a liability for the bank.
(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)
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