Will be out of Nirav mess in 6 months, says PNB MD

The worst is over for Punjab National Bank (PNB), and it will come out of the mess created by the Nirav Modi fraud case in six months, the state-run lender's MD Sunil Mehta said on Sunday.

PNB was hit by country's biggest ever banking fraud of more than Rs 13,000 crore perpetrated by billionaire diamantaire Nirav Modi and his associates, in connivance with some officials of a branch of the bank in Mumbai.

The bank has received support from the government, stakeholders and employees, Mehta said, adding, "So the worst is behind us. Everything now seems to be under control as surgery is over. Now we are in recovery phase. We are anticipating that we will be able to come out of this entire problem in the next six months."