PNB scam: SFIO summons ICICI chief Chanda Kochhar for questioning

Several top bank officials, including ICICI chief Chanda Kochhar and Axis Bank's Shikha Sharma, were on Tuesday summoned by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in connection with Mehul Choksi's Gitanjali Group fraud case. ICICI Bank led the 31-bank consortium that extended credit to the tune of Rs 5280 crore to Mehul Choksi's Gitanjali Group.

The CBI had earlier questioned ICICI Bank Executive Director NS Kanan as part of the investigation in India's biggest banking fraud.

According to reports, ICICI Bank had earlier said that the private bank did not have any exposure to Nirav Modi group of companies but the bank was only lending working capital to the group along with several other banks.

The CBI on Tuesday detained Vipul Chitalia, the Vice-President of Gitanjali Group of Companies, as a part of its probe into the multi-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud. Chitalia was apprehended at Mumbai airport and brought to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office at the Bandra-Kurla Complex here for questioning.

The accused officials of PNB did not enter the instructions for these LoUs in their internal software to avoid scrutiny. They were sent through an international messaging system for banking called SWIFT, which is used to pass instructions among banks globally to transfer funds.

So far, nearly 20 people have been arrested over the last one month in the PNB fraud case.

OneIndia News