Its former chief fraud and vigilance officer had also written to RBI deputy governor about widespread flouting of rules by the bank officials
The Rs 12,636 crore fraud at Punjab National Bank is getting murkier by the day.
Even as the probe has extended to private banks, a former Punjab National Bank (PNB) official has revealed to DNA Money that he had smelt of dirty practices and even written to the then Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor S S Mundra about this way back in 2016.
In a fresh twist, PNB's former chief fraud and vigilance officer in Mumbai Anil Kaul has alleged that a large number of officers in the bank regularly flouted rules and regulations at the branches, which forced him to write letters to the top management of the bank, chief vigilance officer and also the then deputy governor of RBI S S Mundra. Kaul retired in October 2016.
Kaul in his letter dated March 31, 2016, had said, "If RBI investigates only three branches of the Bank. Vashi, Brady House and ECE House, New Delhi, fraudulent advances to the tune of more than Rs 9,000 million, I repeat Rs9,000 millions will surface, and present circle head is well aware of it. Still no action by him. I request you to write to Government of India to appoint a SPECIAL TASK FORCE with your senior Officers and two persons from CBI, the SEBI may also be taken in loop for failure of Corporate Governance." A copy of the letter is with DNA Money.
Anil Kaul told DNA Money that a letter was sent to the then deputy governor S S Mundra, the then chief executive officer and managing director Usha Ananthasubramanian, who is now the chairman of the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) and heading the Allahabad Bank.
PNB fraud pertains Letters of Undertakings (LoUs) and Foreign Letters of Credit (FLCs) issued in favour of Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi amounting to Rs 12,636 crore issued in favour of foreign branches of Indian banks based on fraudulent claims. To avoid scrutiny, the accused PNB officials did not enter the instructions for these LoUs in their internal software. They were sent through SWIFT, an international messaging system for banking which is used to pass instructions among banks globally to transfer money into their accounts.
ICICI Bank is the lead banker in the consortium of 31 banks, which have a collective exposure of over Rs 6,800 crore to Gitanjali Gems but the bank's exposure is not the highest.
According to bankers, the bank's exposure to three companies controlled by Modi is about at Rs 6,400 crore, while firms controlled by Choksi have been accused of defrauding the bank of Rs 6,100 crore. There are loans given to Nirav Modi group of companies, Gitanjali group, Gili and Nakshatra.
SKELETONS TUMBLE OUT
- Anil Kaul has alleged that a large number of officers in the bank regularly flouted rules and regulations at the branches
- This had forced him to write letters to the top management of the bank, chief vigilance officer and also the then deputy governor of RBI S S Mundra
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 "Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi")
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