PNB scam: Court suspends non-bailable warrant against top executive of Gitanjali Group

A special anti-money laundering court here on Thursday suspended the non-bailable warrant issued against a former top executive of Mehul Choksi's Gitanjali Group in connection with the multi-million dollar Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam. Special judge S M Menjonge stayed the warrant to facilitate Sunil Varma, former international business head of Gitanjali Group, to return to India and appear before the court.

Varma, along with diamantaire Choksi and others, was the brain behind the scam at the bank and was instrumental in setting up shell companies, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged.



He has been named as an accused in one of the PNB fraud cases by the ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Varma was issued in August 2018 in connection with the money laundering case. Another NBW was issued against him in July 2021 in the fraud case registered by CBI.

In April this year, Varma had approached the Bombay High Court for the cancellation of the warrant in the CBI case. His lawyers had submitted that Varma intends to return to India and wants protection for the same.

They mentioned that he was ready to appear before the court on July 18.

Accepting the submission, the HC last month cancelled the warrant issued in the CBI case and directed the probe agencies to take steps to enable Varma to appear before the special court dealing with cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).


In view of the HC directions, Varma's lawyer moved the special PMLA court on July 1 to cancel the pending warrant against him.

Special Judge Menjonge suspended the warrant in the money laundering case and directed ED not to execute it until further order.

Choksi has been living in Antigua since 2018, after escaping from India, weeks before the scam was reported.

The diamantaire and his nephew Nirav Modi allegedly siphoned off over Rs 13,000 crore of public money from the PNB using letters of undertaking (LoUs) and foreign letters of credit (FLCs) by bribing officials of the bank's Brady House branch in Mumbai.