Govt dismisses former MD of scam-hit PNB

The government on Monday dismissed Usha Ananthasubramanian, the former managing director of the scam-hit Punjab National Bank, but only on the day she was to retire from service.

Usha was divested of her executive powers as managing director, Allahabad Bank, in May after her name figured in a CBI chargesheet related to the over Rs 1,300-crore PNB scam that surfaced in February this year, but she continued to be on the payroll of the bank.

The CBI had in its chargesheet said, “Usha Ananthasubramanian did not take any meaningful corrective measures in her capacity as the executive head of the bank, and had unauthorisedly delegated the RBI guidelines work to her subordinates without any follow-up action, thereby facilitating the accused in continuance of fraud.”

She was later questioned by the CBI in connection with the case involving diamond merchant Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi.

The investigating agency had also filed charges against two serving executive directors of the PNB — K V Brahmaji Rao and Sanjiv Sharan.

Usha Ananthasubramanian had served as the managing director & chief executive officer of PNB from August 2015 to May 2017 before she was moved to Allahabad Bank.

In an earlier stint, Usha had served as the executive director of PNB from July 2011 to November 2013.

The PNB scam involving Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi related to raising credit from different banks in India and abroad by the two jewellers using fraudulent letters of undertaking through the bank’s SWIFT network.