CBI court junks Mehul Choksi's plea against summons issued in Canara Bank loan fraud case

Mumbai: A special court has rejected diamantaire Mehul Choksi's plea against summons issued to him by a magistrate in the Rs 55 crore Canara Bank-led consortium loan fraud case.

Special CBI judge J P Darekar, in the ruling delivered on February 2, details of which were made available on Friday, held that the magistrate's order "does not suffer from impropriety, incorrectness and illegality" and hence, any interference is not warranted.

A magistrate court had in April last year taken cognizance of a chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the case and had then issued summonses to the accused in the case, including Choksi and two former Gitanjali Group employees Vipul Chitalia and Aniyath Nair.

Choksi, through his lawyers Vijay Agarwal, Rahul Agarwal and Jasmin Purani, on Friday filed a revision application against the magistrate's order.

The plea contended that the magistrate passed the order "in a mechanical manner without application of mind." The defence claimed the order issuing summons had been passed at a lightning speed on the same day of filing of the chargesheet, without even perusing it.

Additionally, the defence contended the specific role of the accused had not been stated and that the order was not a "reasoned one".

The CBI, represented by special public prosecutor A Limosin, said the order passed by the trial court (magistrate) was just and proper.

There are specific roles attributed to each accused in the chargesheet, he told court.

The special judge after, hearing both sides, rejected the claim that the magistrate's order was "mechanical, cryptic or without application of mind".

"It is clear the impugned order does not suffer from impropriety, incorrectness and illegality," the court said.

It then rejected the plea, ruling that "interference is not warranted".

The CBI has claimed Canara Bank and the Bank of Maharashtra had sanctioned Rs 30 crore and Rs 25 crore, respectively, as working capital facilities under a consortium agreement to Bezel Jewellery.

The loan was granted for the manufacturing and sale of gold and diamond-studded jewellery, but the company allegedly did not use it for the intended purposes, according to the CBI.

The company did not repay the loan, causing a loss of Rs 55.27 crore to the consortium, the agency has alleged.

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are prime accused in the Rs 13,500-crore PNB "fraud". While Choksi is fighting for bail in a court in Belgium, Nirav Modi has been in jail in London since 2019.