Nirav case: Fresh CBI charge sheet against PNB official
NEW DELHI: The CBI has filed a fresh charge sheet against Gokulnath Shetty, the Punjab National Bank Deputy Manager, who allegedly helped Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi perpetrate Rs 13,000-crore fraud and his wife for amassing disproportionate assets worth Rs 2.63 crore, officials said on Friday.
The agency has charged Shetty and his wife Asha Latha Shetty, a clerk in Indian Bank, under corruption charges for amassing assets worth over Rs 4.28 crore during the period 2011-17 when the scam was being perpetrated at the Brady House branch of PNB in Mumbai where he was posted, they said.
Of the total assets, the CBI alleged they could not provide satisfactory explanation for assets worth Rs 2.63 crore, which were 2.38 times disproportionate to their known sources of income.
The CBI looked into the relationship between Shetty and Modi-Choksi during which it dug into the assets amassed by the retired deputy manager, they said.
The agency has registered a separate FIR in November, 2018 against Shetty and his wife to look into their assets. It emerged that against a genuine income of Rs 72.52 lakh during a six-year period, Shetty couple had assets in their as well as family members’ names primarily in the form of flats in Mumbai, the CBI alleged. In its charge sheet filed before a Mumbai special court recently, the agency has said that they had purchased a flat worth Rs 46.62 lakh in Goregaon while paid advance booking amount for three more flats in various localities of Mumbai and neighbouring areas. In addition, the agency also detected fixed deposits, bank balance and recurring accounts of over Rs 75 lakh.
The CBI has already filed charge sheets against Modi and Choksi in which role of Shetty, presently in judicial custody, is given, they said.