CBI Registers Fresh FIR Against Mehul Choksi in Matter of PNB Fraud Case

mehul chauksi law insider inmehul chauksi law insider in

Debangana Ray

Published on July 15, 2022 at 21:20 IST

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a fresh first information report (FIR) against fugitive Mehul Choksi for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks led by Canara Bank of ₹55.27 crore.

Several teams of the agency also carried out raids at three locations in Mumbai.

Besides Choksi, Bezel Jewellery India Pvt Ltd (previously known as D’damas Jewellery), a company promoted by him, and its whole-time directors Chetna Jhaveri, Dinesh Bhatia and Milind Limaye have also been booked by the agency.

In a complaint on August 30, 2021, Canara Bank alleged that the bank, along with Bank of Maharashtra, had sanctioned ₹30 crore and ₹25 crore, respectively, as working capital facility to Bezel Jewellery under a consortium agreement.

Though the loan was granted for manufacture and sale of gold and diamond-studded jewellery, the company did not route any of the business transactions through the account to hide diversion of funds.

The company also did not repay the loan, causing a loss of ₹55.27 crore to the consortium, they added.

Choksi is currently residing in Antigua and Barbuda, where he fled immediately after the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case worth ₹13,578 crore came to the CBI’s notice in 2018.

In May last year, Choksi was found in Dominica, a small island in the Caribbean, where attempts were made by the Indian government to get him deported instead of going through a tedious process of extradition in Antigua, where he is a citizen.

As first reported by HT, Dominica withdrew criminal proceedings against Choksi in May this year, killing the Indian government’s hopes of getting him deported.

Reacting to the CBI’s fresh FIR, Choksi’s lawyer Vijay Aggarwal said, “As per vigilance manual of the CVC and a circular issued by finance ministry on May 13, 2015, there can only be one consolidated FIR against one group of companies.”

“Registering separate FIRs for each loan is witch hunting and is akin to lodging separate FIRs for each brick in case of allegation of an illegal wall.” 

Related Post