Serious Fraud Investigation Office
(SFIO) has issued notices to ICICI Bank's CEO Chanda Kochhar and Axis Bank's Managing Director Shikha Sharma in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam worth Rs 12,700 crore.
They
were asked to appear in the Mumbai SFIO today. The investigative body has
authorised them to send representatives in case they are not able to
appear themselves.
The
representatives from Axis Bank arrived at SFIO some time back for being
questioned and have left now. Shikha Sharma was not present. Meanwhile, ICICI
Bank representatives are yet to come.
BSE has
sought clarification from ICICI Bank and Axis Bank with respect to the news,
but both the banks have not responded yet.
The Enforcement Directorate told that Choksi and Modi diverted money to related companies.The ED has also
traced some of the money being routed back to the banks for re-issuing letter
of undertaking, or LoUs.
A consortium
of 31 banks led by ICICI Bank has loans close to Rs 5,200 crore
to Mehul Chokshi's Gitanjali Group. Nirav Modi firms Stellar Diamond and Solar
Exports and Diamonds have together borrowed close to Rs 4,000 crore from banks.Separately, the
ED is also investigating the planned listing of Choksi's Nakshtra World, and
Modi's Firestar International.
The Enforcement
Directorate (ED) is hoping to recover Rs 3,000-4,000 crore from the real estate
assets seized from Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, sources told Moneycontrol.
This is in
addition to the diamonds and precious stones seized by ED from the two groups,
which is valued at Rs 5,816 crore. The ED’s estimate of the value of precious
stones seized from the two groups is based on the stock value, which is always
higher than the market value of the stones.
PNB had
informed stock exchanges about the Rs 11,400 crore worth of unauthorised
transactions at its Brady House branch based on forged letters
of undertaking (LoUs).
The bank had
alleged that two of its officials had issued the forged LoUs, which allowed the
Gitanjali group and Nirav Modi group of companies to borrow money from overseas
banks, with PNB as the guarantor of the loans.
Source- Moneycontrol
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