Fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi’s wife Priti Kothari helped him incorporate dummy companies in the UAE to acquire properties and layer tainted money, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has said in its supplementary chargesheet naming her as an accused among others in the Rs 6,000-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case.
This is the first time any agency has named her as an accused in connection with the PNB scam. This is the second supplementary chargesheet, and it names her along with Mehul Choksi and Gokulnath Shetty, who was the deputy manager of the bank’s Brady House Branch where the scam began in 2017. Three companies – M/s Gitanjali Gems Ltd, M/s. Gill India Ltd., M/s. Nakshatra Brand Ltd – have also been named as accused.
The agency said she was “hand in glove” with her husband in getting companies incorporated to siphon off and launder the money and was aware of the source of the monies. It has called her an “abettor’ for the crime.
Citing the incorporated companies, it stated, “She was fully aware that all the Gitanjali companies M/s Asian Diamond & Jewellery FZE , including M/s Hillingdon Ltd., M/s Goldhawk DMCC (former name M/s Diminco DMCC) were incorporated for beneficial use of Mehul Choksi and the same were beneficially owned and controlled by him.” It added that during its probe it had issued summons to her, but she did not honour it.
The ED said Choksi’s wife, along with one Dion Lillywhite, an employee of UAE-based Gitanjali Group and a dummy director in some of the group companies, had approached one CD Shah in the UAE for incorporation of a few dummy companies. On being approached, Shah and some others helped them incorporate three companies – namely M/s Charing Cross Holdings Ltd., M/s Colindale Holdings Ltd. and M/s Hillingdon Holdings Ltd. – in the UAE.
“The ultimate beneficial owner of all these companies was Priti Pradyotkumar Kothari, wife of Mehul Choksi and eventually Mehul Choksi,” the agency said.
