Mumbai: CBI registers case against Mehul Choksi, others in Rs 55 crore bank fraud case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a fresh case against fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi and others on Thursday for allegedly cheating the Canara Bank and the Bank of Maharashtra to the tune of Rs 55 crores.

Those booked by the CBI in its FIR are BKC based company M/s Bezel Jewellery (India) Pvt Ltd (BJIPL) and its directors Mehul Choksi, Chetna Zaveri, Dinesh Bhatia, Milind Nimaye and unknown public servants.

According to the CBI, a complaint was received from P Santosh, Chief General Manager of Canara Bank along with a copy of the mandate of Bank of Maharashtra to file a complaint against the company and accused persons involved.

"The allegations in this complaint disclose that Canara Bank and Bank of Maharashtra sanctioned Rs 30 crores and Rs 25 crores respectively as Working Capital facility under consortium arrangement led by Canara Bank to BJIPL and immediately on availment of limits, the BJIPL repaid its long term borrowings of Rs 18 crore to its parent company and thereby diverted its Working Capital limits," the CBI's FIR stated.

The FIR further stated, "It is alleged that though the loan was granted for manufacturing and sales of gold and diamond studded jewellery, the company has not routed any of the business transactions through the account since beginning and transactions which appear in the account are with their group concerns only which indicate diversions of funds. It is also alleged that the company has not submitted correct information regarding the stocks, sales, realisations in the stock statements submitted to the banks. The account was always overdrawn due to the interest debit and was continuously appearing in the Special Mention Category."

"The accused company and its directors entered into fraudulent transactions and defaulted in meeting its payment obligations towards the the banks by diverting and siphoning off the bank funds in conspiracy with unknown public servants and caused wrongful loss of Rs 55 crores to the banks and wrongful gain to themselves," the agency's FIR stated.