Mehul Choksi cheated PNB of Rs 6,500 crore, CBI says in new chargesheet

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a supplementary chargesheet against fugitive diamond trader Mehul Choksi, sources privy to the development told ET.

CBI is fighting to deport the wanted jeweller from the Caribbean island nation of Dominica.

Choksi, along with nephew Nirav Modi who is in jail in London, are wanted in the alleged ₹13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.


The fresh chargesheet is significant as the probe agency had found Choksi responsible for defrauding PNB to the tune of ₹6,498 crore by forging 142 letters of understanding (LOUs), 58 foreign letters of credit (FLCs) with 311 fake invoices to avail credit, the sources added.

“The supplementary chargesheet will help strengthen India’s case against Choksi as the probe agency has been able to gather evidence against him, as detailed in the FIR,” an official privy to the development said.

The previous chargesheet covered only a handful of LoUs and FLCs. The supplementary one covers all the LoUs and FLCs listed in the FIR, the official said.

CBI has evidence that Choksi’s Gitanjali Gems Ltd got 142 LoUs and 58 FLCs, respectively, in 2017 through Gokulnath Shetty, former deputy manager, and Manoj Hanumant Kharat, Single Window Operator, of PNB’s Brady House branch in Mumbai. Both the bankers are co-accused in the case.