The CBI has filed a 15,000 page supplementary chargesheet against diamantaire Mehul Choose and 21 others in the Rs 6,097 crore Punjab National Bank scam case, charging him withadditionaloffencesof disappearance of evidence and falsification of accounts. After the chargesheet was filed at the end of last week, the special lCBI court issued a nonbailable offence against Choksi on Monday, special public prosecutor A Limosin said.
The two of four accused, who have been newly named in the chargesheet by the CBI are Sagar Sawant and Sanjay Prasad. Both are PNB Employees and two private people, Dhanesh Seth and Sunil Verma, who were employees of Mehul Choksi. Sunil Verma is the former international head of the Gitanjali Group of Companies and Dhanesh Sheth, Director, Gitanjali Gems, Gili India and Nakshatra Brands.
The CBI said it found that Choksi in connivance with PNB officials had got 165 Letters of Undertaking (LoU) issued from the bank’s Brady House branch between March 1, 2017 and April 29, 2017. Against these, companies Gili India, Nakshatra Brands and Gitanjali had availed 142 buyers credit, amounting to Rs. 3,011 crore.
The agency said in the supplementary chargesheet that unlike alleged in the complaint, 165 and not 142 LoUs were issued, but only 142 buyers credits were availed by the companies. In the five LoUs of 165, Sawant was the ‘maker’in the bank’s SWIFT system.
Regarding the charge of falsification of accounts, the chargesheets states Choksi, along with the other accused, had fraudulently enhanced the value of 58 FLCs manifold between January 2017 and May 2017 against a total of 311 bills drawn by the three companies through amendments that were not entered in the bank’s SWIFT system. The bills amounting to Rs 3,086 crore remained outstanding
