The anti-fraud agency, SFIO, has summoned ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar and Axis Bank’s chief Shikha Sharma in a bank fraud case related to over Rs 5,000 crore loan extended to diamond merchant Mehul Choksi.
Choksi along with his nephew, Nirav Modi, fled India in January. Both of them have been accused of being in the centre of the Rs 11,400 bank fraud. As many as 31 banks had extended loan worth Rs 5,280 crores to Choksi’s Gitanjali Gems. Kochhar’s ICICI was the lead lender
Both Kochhar and Sharma have been asked to appear either in person or send their representatives.
This came on the day the opposition MPs staged protests outside the parliament mocking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for remaining asleep even as the alleged masterminds of the banking frauds fled India.
The ICICI bank had earlier claimed that it was not exposed to the fraud committed by Nirav Modi group. However, this did not stop the federal probe agency, the CBI, from questioning its Executive Director NS Kanan last week.
The investigating agencies have already arrested 20 people in connection with the infamous Rs 11,400 crore PNB scam. NCP leader Majeed Memon had claimed that Nirav Modi deposited Rs 90 crore hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the note ban on 8 November 2016.