NCLT allows govt to add 19 new names in PNB scam

MUMBAI: The National Company Law Tribunal Thursday allowed a government plea to add 19 more respondents, including the sacked head of Allahabad Bank Usha Anathasubramanian, in the Rs 14,000-crore Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi scam that hit the state-run lender PNB last year.The new names in the list of the accused that the government wants to add include a former executive directors of Punjab National Bank K Brahmaji Rao and Sanjiv Saran; general manager Nehal Ahad; and Bishubrata Mishra, who was the internal chief auditor at the Brady House branch of PNB, where the scam took place, among others.The scam came out in late January last year when PNB informed the exchanges about the scam and informed the CBI about the scam which involved official of Modi's companies and Choksi's Gitanjali Gems issuing fake letters of undertakings against non-existing invoices for many years from 2007.The entire scam took place at the Brady House branch at the Horniman Circle area of the megapolis.This takes the total number of respondents in the largest financial scam in the nation's banking history to 88.The corporate affairs ministry moved NCLT for adding these new names after the CBI chargesheet showed the involvement of these people in the scam.The ministry also wants to add some more officials of the bank and companies owned by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi as respondents. Both Modi and Choksi are absconding and refused to come back to the country to face trial.The NCLT bench headed by VP Singh and Ravikumar Duraisamy also restrained these 19 people from alienating their assets until further orders.On the day of her superannuation, the government had on August 13, 2018 sacked Ananthasubramanian from service when she was the MD and CEO of Allahabad Bank and asked CBI to probe her role in the PNB scam as she was one of the MD& CEOs of the bank for some time when the scam took place.She headed PNB between August 2015 and May 2017, prior to which she was also an executive director of the bank from July 2011 to November 2013.The sacking came nearly three months after Allahabad Bank divested her from the post of MD & CEO.The CBI named Ananthasubramanian in its charge-sheet in the Rs 14,000 crore PNB fraud earlier but had continued to be an employee of the Allahabad Bank.

from Economic Times http://bit.ly/2RXkBJ2