3 fresh FIRs filed against Mehul Choksi in Rs 6,700-crore fraud case

PTI

New Delhi, December 17

Three fresh FIRs have been filed by the CBI against absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi on the basis of a complaint from the Punjab National Bank (PNB), bringing to light an additional loss of Rs 6,746 crore incurred by it and other banks of a consortium, officials said.

Four years after Choksi's dramatic escape and the failure of the state-run PNB to detect the scam between 2010 and 2018, the bank submitted three complaints to the CBI on March 21, reporting the additional loss caused by the diamantaire and his firm Gitanjali Gems Limited, Nakshatra Brands Limited and Gili India Limited.

The PNB and the other members of the consortium had extended credit facilities to these companies.

Choksi's counsel Vijay Aggarwal told PTI that it was a "witch hunt".

"When one FIR has been lodged and a chargesheet filed for the total loss to the banks, how can there be a separate FIR now for every small transaction?" he asked.

"Going by that logic, if they claim a total loss of Rs 13,000 crore, they should lodge an FIR each for every single rupee," Aggarwal said, wondering whether there could be one FIR each for every brick laid for the illegal construction of a wall.

"This is why prosecution cases fail. Many mountains were made out of mole hills earlier. The case is like dead for years. It has not moved an inch in the trial court. So the truth will never come out," he said.

Aggarwal said there is a vigilance manual circular that says the consortium can get only one FIR lodged. Each consortium member cannot lodge separate FIRs, he claimed.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed the cases against Choksi, who has taken refuge in Antigua and Barbuda after his escape from India in the first week of January 2018, days before the scam allegedly perpetrated by him and Nirav Modi surfaced, the officials said.