Caravan New
NEW DELHI — The documents provided by the Punjab National Bank show that at least 375 fraudulent Letter of Undertakings (LoUs) worth thousands of crores of Indian rupees were issued to companies owned by diamond merchant Mehul Choksi between January-May 2017.
On January 29, 2018, the CBI had filed first FIR in the case on the basis of a complaint from the Punjab National Bank. The FIR mentioned 8 LoUs worth Rs 280 crore. All these LoUs were issued between 9-14 February 2017. On February 15, the CBI expanded the FIR taking the total number of LoUs to 150 worth Rs 6498 crore. The named accused in the case were Nirav Modi, Nishal Modi, Ami Nirav Modi, Mehul Chinubhai Choksi, Gokulnath Shetty (Deputy Manager (retd.), Punjab National Bank and Manoj Hanumant Kharat, SWO, Punjab National Bank.
|
LoUs Issued |
No. of LoUs |
Bank |
Amount (USD) |
|
Jan-May 2017 |
146 |
UCO Bank, Hong Kong |
247492719 |
|
Jan-May 2017 |
143 |
Canara Bank, Axis Bank, Allahabad Bank |
473768325 |
|
Feb-April 2017 |
77 |
Union Bank of India, Hong Kong |
110214177 |
|
Feb 2017 |
5 |
Allahabad Bank, Hong Kong |
26629681
|
|
Feb 2017 |
3 |
Axis Bank, Hong Kong |
12325200
|
|
2017 |
1 |
2200011 |
|
|
Total |
375 |
|
USD 87,26,30,113 |
On the same February 15, the CBI filed a second FIR in the case mentioning 143 LoUs worth Rs 4887 crore issued during 2017-18 to three firms owned by diamond merchant Mehul Choksi, the maternal uncle of Nirav Modi.
On Saturday, the Congress party shared several pages of the PNB documents listing a total of 375 fraudulent LoUs that were issued between Jan-May 2017.
Intensifying its attack on the Narendra Modi government, the main Opposition party said: “The manner in which thousands of crores of public money was looted with impunity and the complete failure of entire ‘risk management system’ tells its own story of favours extended and protection granted. The truth is that ‘Bank Scam’ has exposed the ‘Culture of Crony Capitalism’ that has thrived and flourished under the watch of the Modi Government.”
“Over the last 45 months, the BJP Government has shown ‘zero action’ and ‘zero result’ on bringing back black money stashed abroad as promised by the Prime Minister and in taking action against accused in multiple corruption scams that have been exposed. ‘Zero Tolerance for Corruption’ has become ‘Zero Tolerance for Accountability on Corruption’.
The party has demanded PM Modi to “apprise the nation of complete facts about the biggest ‘Bank Scam’ instead of remaining as usual silent. It must be brought out how the entire banking system was duped through ‘Letters of Understanding’ under the watch of Modi Government and why all authorities, including Finance Ministry, FIU, SFIO, ED, CBI and others were found wanting in preventing the loss?”
