1 week Ago By Apoorva Shukla
New Delhi: Bengaluru-based entrepreneur Hariprasad SV, the whistle-blower of Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, hailed the arrest of fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi on Monday, April 14. Mehul Choksi was arrested in Belgium on India's request for his role in the PNB loan fraud case. Speaking to ANI, Hariprasad termed it as "great news" not only for India but for all those who were cheated by him.
"Wow, Mehul Choksi getting arrested in Belgium is great news not only for India but also for all those who got cheated by him. The government must bring him back to India as soon as possible, and justice must be delivered," he said. "Apart from bringing him back, the most important thing is to get back all those billions of dollars he looted from India and stashed anywhere in the world.
Hopefully, the Government of India will succeed this time. Great news," Hariprasad said. Mehul Choksi Arrested Absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi has been arrested in Belgium following an extradition request by Indian probe agencies for his involvement in the Rs 13,000 crore PNB bank loan "fraud" case.
The action against the second "prime suspect" in this case, after Choksi's nephew diamantaire Nirav Modi, was taken on Saturday based on an extradition request moved by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Choksi was located in Belgium last year when he went there on the grounds of getting medical treatment. He had been staying in Antigua since 2018 after leaving India.
How PNB Scam Was Unearthed? Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi allegedly siphoned off Rs 13,500 crore of public money from the state-run Punjab National Bank using fraudulent letters of undertaking. On July 26, 2016, Hariprasad, in his letter to the Prime Minister's office, has pointed out that the balance sheets of PNB clearly indictaed that something was amiss. According to the investigating agencies, officials at PNB's Brady House branch in Mumbai issued 165 LoUs and 58 FLCs during March-April 2017, against which 311 bills were discounted.
These LoUs and FLCs were allegedly issued to Choksi's firms without any sanctioned limit or cash margin and without making entries in PNB's central banking system to evade any scrutiny in case of a default. LoUs are a guarantee given by a bank on behalf of its client to a foreign bank. If the client does not repay the foreign bank, the liability falls on the guarantor bank.
Based on these LoUs by PNB, money was lent by SBI, Mauritius; Allahabad Bank, Hong Kong; Axis Bank, Hong Kong; Bank of India, Antwerp; Canara Bank, Manama; and State Bank of India, Frankfurt. "Since the accused companies did not repay the amount availed against the said fraudulent LoUs and FLCs, PNB made the payment of Rs 6,344.97 crore (USD 965.
18 million), including the overdue interest, to the overseas banks, which had advanced buyer's credit and discounted the bills against the fraudulent LoUs and FLCs issued by the PNB," the CBI's supplementary charge sheet in the PNB bank fraud case alleged. (With inputs from PTI, ANI) Get Latest News Live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from India and around the world..
