HC grants bail to former VP of Gitanjali Group in PNB scam case

The Bombay High Court Thursday granted bail to Vipul Chitalia, the erstwhile Vice President of Banking Operations of Mehul Choksi’s GitanjaliGroup of Companies. Vipul Chitalia, considered to be a close confidante of Mehul Choksi, was arrested by the CBI in March 2018 in connection with the ongoing probe into the multi-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case.

The CBI had alleged that Chitalia was the mastermind for putting through fraudulent transactions along with absconding accused Mehul Choksi, owner of the Gitanjali group.

The counsel for Chitalia, advocate Vijay Aggarwal argued that his client has been in custody for close to 4.5 years now and the trial is yet to commence in the matter.


In an affidavit filed by the investigating agency while contesting the bail plea contended it was in the process of scrutinising voluminous documents running into thousands of pages and with a list of witnesses being almost close to 100 in number, thus, it would take minimum five more months for the investigation to be concluded.

Advocate Vijay Aggarwal argued that the incarceration of Chitalia would be a violation of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, as the accused has been incarceration for an inordinate period of time and with no certainty as to the commencement of trial in the near future.

Last year the federal agency had filed a supplementary chargesheet against 12 individuals and entities, including Choksi, Chitalia, and former senior officials of PNB.

Recently a court in the Carribean island-nation of Dominica dropped the charge of illegal entry against him.

“During December 2017, Choksi visited Hong Kong and met the dummy directors of Hong Kong-based supplier entities and told them that problems are going on in lndia, and that they might have to face ED enquiries,” reads the CBI charge-sheet. “This shows that Choksi had prior knowledge about the impending criminal proceedings”.

At the Hong Kong meeting, Choksi allegedly told the directors to apply for a Thailand visa as the operations in Hong Kong would be closed. Chitalia was allegedly tasked with the job of processing their work permits for Abbeycrest (Thailand) Ltd., Bangkok, a firm that was also controlled by Choksi. In January 2018, Chitaliatold these executives that “Choksi had instructed they not visit lndia as they might face trouble from the investigating agencies,” reads the charge-sheet.

Meanwhile, Chitalia helped Choksi in shifting the dummy directors to Bangkok once the scam came to light. The agency also recovered original applications and other accompanying documents submitted by Chokai’s accused firms - Gitanjali Gems Ltd, Gili lndia Ltd and Nakshatra Brands Ltd – for 165 fraudulent letters of understanding (LOU) and 58 foreign letters of credit (FLC) from the premises rented under Chitalia’s directions, the new charge-sheet said.

“Choksi got them shifted to Bangkok in February, 2018, when the fraud came to light. He persuaded them not to return to lndia to face investigating agencies in lndia. Subsequently, they returned to lndia in the second quarter of 2018,” it further added.

These directors are now CBI’s witnesses in the case.