Gokulnath booked in disproportionate assets case by CBI

NEWDELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has slapped a case of amassing assets disproportionate to known sources of income against key Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam accused Gokulnath Shetty.

The agency has accused Shetty and his wife Ashalata, who is a clerk with the Indian Bank, of amassing assets 200% more than their known sources of income. HT has seen the FIR.

Shetty retired as deputy manager from the PNB and his wife is a clerk with the Indian Bank. He was arrested by the CBI in connection with fraudulent loans given to diamond traders Nirav Modi and his maternal uncle Mehul Choksi in February and formally chargesheeted by the agency later in the year.

Shetty has been accused of colluding with Modi and Choksi to issue Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) and Foreign Letters of Credit (FLCs) worth around ₹14,000 crore in violation of banking norms. During the initial probe in disproportionate assets case, the CBI found that between April 1, 2011 and May 31, 2017, the day he retired, the Shettys

CBI HAS ACCUSED SHETTY AND HIS WIFE OF AMASSING ASSETS 200% MORE THAN THEIR KNOWN SOURCES OF INCOME

amassed disproportionate assets to the tune of ₹2.63 crore which were 238.44% disproportionate to their known sources of income.

On his wife Ashalata, the CBI FIR alleged: “(She) been found to have actively assisted her husband in the concealment and acquisition of assets raised from ill-gotten wealth and thereby has abetted the offence of possession of disproportionate assets by a public servant”.

Shetty was posted in the PNB’s Brady House branch till his retirement and looked after the section dealing with issuance of LoUs and FLCs. It is the same branch from which LoUs and FLCs were issued to Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi in violation of rules and regulations. An LoU is a guarantee which is given by an issuing bank to Indian banks having branches abroad to grant a short-term credit to the applicant for making payments for imports.