The government has divested the powers of bank officials accused in the multi-crore Punjab National Bank scam. The ministry of finance has conveyed this to the directors of PNB and the Allahabad bank, Rajeev Kumar, secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance on Monday .
He also added that they have initiated the removal of three board level officers, two executive directors of PNB and one managing director of Allahabad Bank.
“The board of PNB has decided to divest executive directors to replace them,” Kumar added. Kumar also said that the Allahabad Bank will call a board meeting and then take a call on divesting the powers of its managing director named in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) chargesheet.
The CBI on Monday submitted a charge-sheet in a Special CBI Court in Mumbai in connection with the multi-crore scam. In February, PNB detected the multi-crore scam, where diamantaire Nirav Modi and his uncle cum business partner Mehul Choksi had allegedly cheated the bank to the tune of Rs. 114 billion, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank.
Earlier on May 3, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) told the Delhi High Court that the affidavits filed by Modi’s uncle and business partner Mehul Choksi’s firm Gitanjali Gems in the court were ‘false and misleading.’
In connection with the pleas filed on the Gitanjali Gems in the court, the ED said, “The Company cleverly veils any reference to Mehul Choksi, who left India in the twilight of the scam coming to the notice of the law enforcement agencies”.
On April 6, the court issued a notice to the ED on a plea of Gitanjali Gems, seeking quashing of a money laundering case against the company.
The scam, which reportedly began in 2011, was detected in the third week of January this year, after which the PNB officials reported it to the concerned agencies.
The ED had registered the money laundering case against Nirav and others on the basis of a CBI FIR.
Currently, the probe agencies are investigating the matter and have also seized many properties of Nirav and Choksi.