The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday submitted a chargesheet to a special court alleging that the Punjab National Bank’s former managing director and chief executive officer, Usha Ananthasubramanian, was aware of the illegal dealings with businessman Nirav Modi, PTI reported. The fugitive businessman is an accused in the Rs 13,000-crore Punjab National Bank fraud case.
The investigating agency claimed that the former managing director misled the Reserve Bank of India.
The chargesheet said that the central bank had sent several questions to PNB since October 2016 about the procedure it undertakes before issuing Letters of Undertaking, or letters of credit telling others banks that it would meet a customer’s liabilities. “Inspite of her knowledge about the modus operandi in these frauds, she [Ananthasubramanian] did not take any meaningful corrective measures in her capacity as the executive head of the bank and had unauthorisedly delegated the RBI guidelines work to her subordinates without any follow up action,” the news agency quoted the chargesheet as saying.
On May 14, the CBI filed its first chargesheet in the case, detailing the role of fugitive jeweller Nirav Modi, his brother Nishal Modi, and an executive in Modi’s company. On May 16, the agency filed its supplementary chargesheet against diamond jeweller Mehul Choksi and his companies under the Gitanjali Group.
On Monday, the Enforcement Directorate attached assets, estimated to be worth Rs 170 crore, belonging to Nirav Modi, PTI reported. The special CBI court has allowed the agency to issue new non-bailable warrants against Modi, his brother Nishal, and an executive of the Nirav Modi Group Subhash Parab.
The scam
On February 14, the Punjab National Bank had informed the Bombay Stock Exchange that it had detected “fraudulent and unauthorised transactions” worth Rs 11,380 crore at its Brady House branch in South Mumbai. The bank revised this figure to Rs 12,703 crore and later to around Rs 13,645 crore.
A few officials of the public sector bank had allegedly issued fraudulent Letters of Undertaking to Nirav Modi’s companies. Some bank officials have been arrested and are under investigation.
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