PNB Detects Another Scam of Rs 9 Cr at its Mumbai’s Brady Branch

The CBI has booked ex-PNB DGM Gokulnath Shetty, Manoj Hanumat Kharawat and the promoters of Chandri Papers.

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a fresh case relating to "fraudulent" issuance of Rs 9 crore letters of undertaking (LoU) to Chandri Papers and Allied Products by the Punjab National Bank's Brady House branch in Mumbai. It is the same branch that is at the centre of a storm over a much bigger fraud – of more than Rs 12,000 crore – by billionaire jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.

Retired PNB employee Gokulnath Shetty and single-window operator at the branch, Manoj Kharat, who are facing CBI probe in the Modi-Choksi case, have been booked by the agency in the fresh FIR, officials said. The agency has also named the company and its directors as accused in the case, they added.

After filing the FIR on 9 March, the agency has carried out searches at various locations, sources said.

The CBI has alleged that Shetty retired on 31 May 2017 and Kharat entered into criminal conspiracy with directors of the company Aditya Rasiwasia and Ishwardas Agarwal.

The agency has alleged that as part of the conspiracy to defraud the public sector bank, they got issued two LoUs for $1.4 million (about Rs 9.09 crore at the rate of Rs 64 per dollar) favouring SBI Antwerp, Belgium, they said.

The due date of payment for the LoUs was 20 January 2020.

It is alleged that for the issuance of the two LoUs neither was there any available credit limit to the company nor any 110 percent margin was retained by the bank, they said.

An LoU is a service whereby the bank guarantees a customers payment obligation of a specified amount to an overseas bank.

Shetty and Kharat are already facing CBI probe in fraudulently issuing LoUs and letters of credit worth over Rs 13,000 crore to the companies of billionaire jewellers Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi.