Fresh FIR against Gitanjali Group

The Central Bureau of Investigation a filed a second First Information Report (FIR) against Mehul Choksi run Gitanjali Group of Companies after a fresh complaint was made by Punjab National Bank on 13^th February. The investigating agency is conducting searches at 20 locations of Gitanjali Group Companies across 6 cities.

The second FIR related to letters of undertaking worth Rs 4,887 crore issued to Mehul Choksi’s Gitanjali Group - Gitanjali Gems, Gili India and Nakshatra are the companies named in the FIR. The searches were conducted in Mumbai, Pune, Surat, Jaipur, Telangana and Coimbatore.

The first FIR filed by CBI had only named Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Nishal Modi, Ami Modi along with their firms Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamonds.


PNB is in the midst of a Rs 11400 crore fraud which has been going on since 2010 at the Brady House branch of the bank in Mumbai came to light in January after an employee who was rolling over the letter of undertakings (LoUs) retired.

Subsequently the claims of banks such as Allahabad Bank, Union Bank of India and Axis Bank requests for rollover were not honoured by the new staff overlooking the account.

Punjab National Bank had issued Letter of Undertaking and Foreign Letter of Credit (FLC) amounting to Rs 11,400 crore to companies associated with Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. Out of which over Rs 9500 crore worth of LoUs were issued and nearly Rs 1800 crore worth of FLC were issued.

Those banks entangled in the fraud such as the State Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Axis Bank, Union Bank of India and Bank of India claim that the funds were credited into PNB’s Nostro account so it is the bank’s liability. Nostro account refers to an account that a bank holds in a foreign currency in another bank.