PNB fraud: Mehul Choksi’s wife moves court seeking cancellation of warrant

Mehul Choksi's wife, Preeti Kothari, has moved the special PMLA court seeking cancellation of the warrant issued against her in connection with the PNB fraud. Kothari claimed she was unaware of the proceedings and never received any summons.

MUMBAI: Fugitive diamond trader Mehul Choksi’s wife Preeti Kothari on Tuesday moved the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court seeking cancellation of the warrant issued against her in connection with the ₹13,850-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud. Kothari claimed that she was unaware of the criminal proceedings against her.

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Kothari was named as an accused by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in its third prosecution complaint (chargesheet) alleging that she was the ultimate beneficial owner of three companies, including Hillingdon Holdings Ltd and Charing Cross Holdings Ltd registered in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Hillingdon was incorporated by Preeti and one Dion Lillywhite (an employee of a US-based Gitanjali Group company and dummy director in some of the group companies) and the sole shareholder of M/s Goldhawk DMCC (previously named Diminico DMCC).

Based on the ED complaint, the special court had in June last year issued summons to her. The ED had, after a year of issuance of the summons, moved a plea seeking a bailable warrant against Kothari. The agency pleaded that the copy of summons was pasted at her last known address in India, but she did not appear before the court.

Refuting the contentions, Kothari in her plea filed through lawyers Vijay Agrawal and Rahul Agrawal claimed that she was not aware of the proceedings and never received any summons from the agency.

“The present applicant was unaware about the existence of the present legal proceedings on account of the fact that she has been a resident of Antigua and Barbuda since she shifted to the country in 2018, much prior to the registration of the enforcement case information report (ECIR) in the present matter by the ED. The factum of foreign citizenship of the present Applicant, and place of residence being outside India was well known to the Indian authorities,” her plea said.

She has also referred to the proceedings initiated by her after the alleged abduction of her husband Mehul Choksi from Antigua in July 2021 and his subsequent arrest in Dominica for alleged illegal entry.

She claimed that the agency did not follow proper procedure to serve summons to her and added that “the applicant could not have been expected to have had knowledge of the proceedings presently underway before this Hon’ble Court”.

“The alleged non-compliance of the summons on the part of the applicant herein was neither wilful, nor deliberate. Furthermore, there can be no presumption of wilful disobedience on the part of the applicant herein, since she was never in receipt of the summons,” Kothari said while seeking to cancel the warrant.

Mehul Choksi is the prime accused in the PNB fraud. The CBI investigation has revealed that the bank had reported a fraud amounting to ₹7,080.86 crore in respect of Choksi’s Gitanjali group of companies. The entities controlled by Choksi were also enjoying credit exposure from a consortium of 32 banks and these banks have reported outstanding balance with respect to those entities to the tune of ₹5,099.74 crore as of December 31, 2017.

Choksi’s nephew Nirav Modi has been booked in a separate case for allegedly duping PNB to the tune of ₹66,805.24 crore.