PNB fraud: CBI court sends 11 accused to judicial custody till March 28

A special CBI court on Saturday remanded in judicial custody till March 28 the 11 accused arrested in connection with the multi-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.

The CBI has alleged that the firms controlled by diamond baron Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi had obtained fraudulent LoUs and letters of credit (LCs), worth over 130 billion from the PNB in connivance with some officials of the bank.

Modi's firms allegedly defrauded the PNB of over Rs 65 billion, while Choksi's firms Rs 70.8 billion.

Key accused Gokulnath Shetty (former deputy General manager of PNB), Manoj Kharat (single window operator of PNB) Hemant Bhat (authorised signatory of Modi's company), Bechhu Tiwari (then chief manager in the Forex department of PNB), were produced in the court of Special CBI judge S R Tamboli today.

Yashwant Joshi (scale II manager in Forex department), Praful Sawant (scale-I officer handling exports section), Manish Bosamiya (former AGM- operations-of Firestar International Ltd owned by Modi), Miten Pandia (then Financial manager of Firestar), Sanjay Rambhia (auditor of Firestar), Aniyath Shiv Raman Nair (then director of Gili India Ltd, a Gitanjali Group firm owned by Choksi), Vipul Chitalia (VP banking operations of Gitanjali group) were also produced in the court.

The court sent all of them in judicial custody.

The CBI has registered cases against Modi and his companies, and Choksi in connection with the PNB fraud.