Image Source: India Today.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a new charge sheet under the anti-money laundering statute against absconding jeweler Mehul Choksi, his wife Priti, and others in connection with the over Rs 13,000-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan fraud case, authorities said on Monday.
This is the federal government’s first criminal charge against Mehul Choksi’s wife, Priti Pradyotkumar Kothari.
The ED has accused her of “assisting her spouse in the layering of criminal profits.”
The charge sheet, filed under criminal provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), was submitted in March before a special court in Mumbai. The court took notice of it on Monday, according to authorities.
In addition to the couple, the charge sheet names Choksi’s three firms, Gitanjali Gems Limited, Gili India Limited, Nakshatra Brand Limited, and former PNB deputy manager (Brady House branch, Mumbai) Gokulnath Shetty.
The ED filed the first two charges against Choksi in 2018 and 2020, respectively.
According to the ED, Priti worked “hand in glove with her husband in having firms created for him for laundering and siphoning off profits of crime and using and portraying them as untainted.”
“She was aware of the source of funds that her husband was unlawfully and fraudulently routing/siphoning.” “She was an abettor of the crime by being complicit in laundering criminal funds,” the ED said.
Priti was identified as the “ultimate beneficial owner” of three UAE-based companies, Hillingdon Holdings Limited, Chating Cross Holdings Limited, and Colindale Holdings Limited.
Mehul Choksi, Nirav Modi, their family members, workers, bank executives, and others were arrested in 2018 by the ED and the CBI for allegedly committing fraud at the PNB Brady House branch in Mumbai.
