The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday filed the first chargesheet against diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi in connection to India's largest ever financial scam worth Rs 14 thousand crore in the Punjab National Bank.
"PNB scam case: Central Bureau of Investigation submitted charge-sheet in Special CBI Court in Mumbai," the news agency ANI reported.
Hours after the CBI filed the chargesheet against the fraudstars, the DFS (Department of Financial Services) has directed the directors of PNB and Allahabad Bank to divest all the powers of the officers, who are accused in the case.
"We have initiated the removal of 3 board level officers, 2 ED officers of Punjab National Bank and 1 MD of Allahabad Bank," DSF secretary Rajiv Kumar said.
With DFS initiating the removal action, the PNB has decided to divest ED officers to replace them.
The decision was taken after a PNB board meeting took place on Monday.
The Allahabad Bank too will call a board meeting soon and then decide to divest the power of Chief Managing Director (CMD) named in the CBI charge sheet.
The chargesheet, filed in a Mumbai court, detailed the alleged role of the PNB's former chief Usha Ananthasubramanian. She is currently serving as the CEO and MD of the Allahabad Bank. The CBI recently questioned Ananthasubramanian in connection with the scam.
Besides these, the names of several other top officials along with the PNB executive directors K V Brahmaji Rao and Sanjiv Sharan, and general manager (international operations) Nehal Ahad were also mentioned in the chargesheet.
Read | PNB Fraud Case: Punjab National Bank moves Hong Kong High Court against Nirav Modi
The CBI has detailed the roles of Nirav Modi, his brother Nishal Modi and Subhash Parab, an executive in Nirav Modi's company, an official closed to the development told PTI.
The chargesheet basically deals with the first FIR registered in the case relating to the fraudulent issuance over Rs 6,000 crore of Letters of Undertaking to Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds.
The agency has not given in detail the role of Mehul Choksi in the present chargesheet. It is likely to come up when the CBI files supplementary charge sheets in the case related to the probe of the Gitanjali group.
The CBI has registered three separate FIRs in connection with the alleged fraud in the public-sector bank by the companies of the nephew-uncle duo of Modi and Choksi. CBI has arrested 19 people in connection to the PNB scam so far.
Read | SBI, PNB put 15 NPAs worth Rs 1,063 crore for sale
Earlier, on April 21, the Punjab National Bank moved a Hong Kong court against the billionaire jewellers in order to recover an amount of over USD 5 billion.
Both Modi and Choksi had left the country before PNB filed the complaint with the CBI. They are at large after defrauding PNB of over Rs 14,000 crore using 1,200 illegally secured letters of undertakings (LOUs).
(With inputs from agencies)
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