Mumbai: The Bombay high court declined a plea by an accused that sought to make Punjab National Bank (PNB) an additional accused in the case where Gitanjali group allegedly defrauded the bank. The HC said, “Admittedly, fraud is committed with PNB by the officials of PNB and Gitanjali Group of Companies... in fact, PNB is a victim, so PNB cannot be added as an accused.”Justice Shivkumar Dige, sitting singly, also imposed Rs 10,000 as costs on Nitin Shahi, accused number eight, who filed the petition in 2020, which it dismissed. The HC order was out on Monday.The CBI, through special public prosecutor, informed the HC on March 18 that the bank, PNB, suffered over Rs 7,000 crore worth of loss in the case of Gitanjali Gems and group companies alone and hence the company and bank cannot be measured by the same yardstick.A special CBI trial court in 2020 rejected Shahi’s plea to add PNB as an additional accused. His lawyer Vritee Soni argued that the chargesheet alleged a conspiracy was hatched by bank officials in connivance with staff of Gitanjali group and hence the bank too ought to be made an accused and cannot shift blame only to its employees. The petitioner’s case was that Gitanjali Gems Ltd is an accused and all its Key Managerial Persons (KMPs) are accused, but PNB is not arrayed as an accused when its officials are for allegedly not informing the bank about fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LOUs) and Letters of Credit (LCs).Munde said, “PNB’s senior and junior employees have been chargesheeted because they had conspired and cheated PNB,” and the senior management of the company too are facing trial.The CBI on Feb 15, 2018, registered the crime on a complaint from Avneesh Nepalia, Dy General Manager, PNB in Mumbai, against Gokulnath Shetty, Dy Manager, PNB, and 15 other accused, for cheating, criminal conspiracy, and under the Prevention of Corruption Act case for allegedly defrauding PNB of over Rs 750 million USD or nearly Rs 5,000 crore and later filed additional complaints of frauds worth an additional Rs 1,250 crore and around Rs 950 crore between 2013 and 2017. The trial is pending in the case.
