Punjab National fraud case: CBI indicts Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, bank officials

 Mumbai, May 14 :  The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday filed its first charge sheet in the Rs 13,400 crore Punjab National Bank that involved celebrity jeweller Nirav Modi, his diamond merchant uncle Mehul Choksi and top bank officials.
In the charge sheet Nirav Modi has been named as 'wanted accused.'
The charge sheet, filed in a special court in Mumbai, also names several other top officials of Punjab National. It was filed just before the end of the 90-day period to submit charges against the 19 arrested persons.
As a consequence, the accused will not be able to apply for bail now.
Usha Ananthasubramanian, Managing Director and CEO of the Allahabad Bank, who held the same position at Punjab National earlier, PNB Executive Directors KV Brahmaji Rao and Sanjiv Sharan, and General Manager (international operations) Nehal Ahad have been named as accused by the CBI. A separate charge sheet against Mehul Choksi will be filed later.
The agency has detailed the roles of Nirav Modi, his brother Nishal Modi and Subhash Parab, an executive in Nirav Modi’s company, officials said. The charge sheet 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 charge sheet.
It is expected 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 Modi and Choksi who have since fled the country. UNI