Court denies Mehul Choksi permission to intervene in bank’s plea

Mumbai: A special court here on Wednesday rejected absconding diamond merchant Mehul Choksi’s application seeking to intervene in an application filed by the ICICI Bank for the release of certain mortgaged properties worth Rs 636 crore.

Choksi, an accused in the Rs 13,500 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, is currently living in Antigua in Barbados.

The ICICI Bank has sought release of certain properties mortgaged with it.

His intervention application took objection to the release of his flats in south Mumbai and a bungalow in Alibaug, attached by the Enforcement Directorate during its probe, in the bank’s favour.

But special judge for the Prevention of Money Laundering Act cases S M Menjoge said the bank had not sought these properties. The properties which the ICICI Bank was seeking were not owned by Choksi personally but by different companies, hence, he had no right to intervene, the court said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate are investigating diamond businessman Nirav Modi, his uncle Choksi and others in the PNB scam. Nirav Modi, Choksi and the companies owned by them borrowed more than Rs 13,000 crore from PNB through fraudulent Letters of Undertaking and Letters of Credit between 2011 and 2017 in connivance with some bank officials, the central agencies have alleged.