Fresh chargesheet names Mehul Choksi, PNB ex-MD

New Delhi: Gitanjali group owner Mehul Choksi and Allahabad Bank CEO Usha Ananthasubramanian along with 13 others were on Wednesday  charged by the CBI for alleged cheating and corruption in the issuance of fraudulent LoUs worth Rs 7,080.86 crore from PNB in the country’s biggest banking scam case.

In addition, three companies of Choksi — Gitanjali Gems, Gili India and Nakshatra Brands —have also been made accused in the charge sheet filed before a special CBI court in Mumbai, officials said.

The chargesheet pertains to a second FIR related to alleged crimes of Choksi and his companies in the series of three such cases registered by the CBI in the over $2 billion scam case in which jeweller's nephew Nirav Modi is also an accused, they said.

The agency has alleged Rs 7,080.86 crore were siphoned off by Choksi and his companies using 142 LoUs and 58 foreign LoCs, the officials said.

Choksi and Nirav are both absconding. The agency had on May 14 filed a charge sheet in a related case against diamond merchant Nirav pertaining to alleged swindling of Rs 6,498.20 crore using fraudulent LoUs issued from PNB Brady House branch in Mumbai.

The cumulative figure of the funds swindled by Choksi and Modi now stands at Rs 13,579.06 crore from PNB by using fraudulent LoUs, according to the charge sheets, the officials said.

An LoU is a guarantee given by an issuing bank to Indian banks having branches abroad to grant short-term credit to the applicant.