Court takes cognisance of charges against ex-banker in DA case

    Mumbai, Feb 18 (PTI) A special CBI court here on
Thursday took the cognisance of a charge-sheet filed against
Gokulnath Shetty, a retired deputy manager of Punjab National
Bank (PNB), and his wife in a disproportionate assets case,
and also issued summons to them.
    Shetty is also accused of helping fugitive diamond
merchants Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi perpetrate a multi-
crore scam at the government lender when he was in service.
    The CBI's Anti-Corruption Bureau had, in October 2020,
filed the charge-sheet against the couple for amassing
disproportionate assets worth over Rs 4.28 crore during 2011-
17, a period when the scam was being perpetrated at the Brady
House branch of PNB in Mumbai where Shetty was posted.
    It is the contention of the probe agency that the
accused couple (both public servants) amassed a large number
of movable and immovable properties from April 1, 2011 to May
31, 2017, in their names and those of their family members,
which were disproportionate to their know sources of income.
    The duo has been charged under relevant provisions
of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
    Sanction orders against both the accused (to prosecute
them) were also filed with the chargesheet, the CBI court
noted.
    Therefore, keeping in view the contention in the
charge-sheet and evidence so produced along with it, a prima
facie case appears to have been made out against the accused
to proceed further for the offences alleged against them, the
court observed.
    The court took cognisance of the probe agency's
charge-sheet and issued summons to Shetty and his wife, asking
them to remain present before it on March 6.
    Shetty, who is alleged to have played a key role in
the Rs 13,700-crore loan fraud at PNB while working as the
deputy manager at the bank's Brady House branch, was arrested
in March 2018. He is also an accused in the PNB scam case.
    The scam surfaced when companies owned by Nirav Modi
and Choksi approached the Brady House branch in January 2018,
after the retirement of Shetty in 2017, seeking renewal of
Letter of Undertaking (LoU), issued by PNB, for payments to
suppliers.
    An LoU is a guarantee which is given by an issuing
bank to Indian lenders having branches abroad to grant a
short-term credit to the applicant.
    In case of default, the bank issuing the LoU has to
pay the liability to the credit-giving bank along with
accruing interest. PTI AVI
RSY RSY

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)