Mumbai: Over three months after filing the first information report (FIR), the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday filed its first charge sheet in the over $2 billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case involving Nirav Modi his associates, officials said. While confirming the development, the officials said that about 12,000 page charge sheet has been filed before a special court in PNB Nirav Modi case under several sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The criminal complaint has only been filed against Nirav Modi, his associates and businesses (Diamond R Us, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds) and the entire gamut of issuance of fake Letters of Undertaking (LoU) by the Punjab National Bank (PNB) to his firms in alleged connivance of bank officials.
It is expected that the agency would file a second charge sheet against Modi’s uncle and jeweller Mehul Choksi and his businesses. The charge sheet also details the attachments made by the agency against Modi and his associates in the last few months after it first registered an FIR in this case on February 14.
The CBI had early this month filed two charge sheets in this case. Modi, who is absconding and has not joined the ED probe in the case till now, and others are being probed under various criminal laws after the fraud came to light this year following a complaint by PNB that they allegedly cheated the nationalised bank to the tune of over Rs. 13,000 crore, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank. The ED charge sheet focuses on the money laundering aspect and the role of Nirav Modi and others in perpetrating the alleged fraud, a senior official said.
Both Nirav Modi and Choski are said to have left the country before criminal cases were lodged against them.
Prasanta Patnaik