CBI names ex-PNB CEO Usha Ananthasubramanian in Nirav Modi case

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday filed a charge sheet against Allahabad Bank CEO and MD Usha Ananthasubramanian in the multi-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case.

The charge sheet, filed in a special court in Mumbai, also names several other top officials of the bank. Ananthasubramanian was the MD and CEO of PNB from 2015 to 2017 and was questioned recently by the CBI in connection with the case.

The agency has also named PNB executive directors K V Brahmaji Rao and Sanjiv Sharan, and general manager (international operations) Nehal Ahad in its charge sheet. The agency has detailed the roles of Nirav Modi, his brother Nishal Modi and Subhash Parab, an executive in Nirav Modi's company, a PTI report has 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 likely to come up when the CBI files supplementary charge sheets in the case related to the probe of the Gitanjali group.

The over Rs 13,000 crore scam, considered to be the biggest ever fraud in India's history, came to light earlier this year. PNB was allegedly defrauded by diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali Gems.

PNB disclosed in February that Modi and Choksi had defrauded it by raising credit from overseas branches of other Indian banks using illegal guarantees issued by rogue PNB staff over several years.

The bank has been conducting a separate internal investigation into the fraud and has already suspended at least 21 officials.

Indian authorities have arrested at least 20 people and a court has issued non-bailable warrants against Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi. The duo have denied the allegations against them, and authorities said they both left the country before the fraud was uncovered.

With Agency Inputs