PNB fraud: Finance Ministry initiates action against Allahabad Bank CEO
New Delhi, May 14: The Finance Ministry on Monday started the process of removing Allahabad Bank CEO and MD Usha Ananthasubramanian from her post after the CBI filed a chargesheet detailing her alleged role in the over Rs 13,000-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam.
Ananthasubramanian, who was the MD and CEO of PNB from August 2015 to May 2017, was quizzed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in February in connection with the case. On Monday, CBI filed the chargesheet in the case mentioning her role.
A Finance Ministry official told IANS that the Department of Financial Services (DFS) had asked the government representative in the Allahabad Bank to come up with a proposal before the board to strip Ananthasubramanian of her powers.
He said that the board would take the final call on the proposal.
The official added that similar action was also intiated against two Executive Directors of the PNB.
"DFS has started action for removing and dismissing the accused officials. The departmental inquiry will continue against them separately," he said.
Earlier, the CBI filed a chargesheet against Ananthasubramanian and 21 others, including 11 bank officials, over the PNB fraud case allegedly perpetrated by diamantire Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi.
The agency has also named PNB Executive Directors K.V. Brahmaji Rao and Sanjiv Sharan, and General Manager (International Operations) Nehal Ahad in its chargesheet filed before a special CBI court here.
So far, 19 people have been arrested in the case while Modi and Choksi are on the run.
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Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya case: Hope emerges as Iran may contact victim’s family in bid for pardon
New Delhi: There appears to be a glimmer of hope for Nimisha Priya, the nurse from Kerala on death row in Yemen, as report suggest Iranian officials may reach out to the family of Talal Abdo Mahdi, her former business partner, to seek a pardon through blood money. Priya was sentenced to death for Mahdi's murder.
The 37-year-old nurse is currently imprisoned in Sana’a, the Yemeni capital, which is under the control of Iran-backed Houthis.
A report by The New Indian Express published on Friday stated that discussions are underway to gain the victim's family’s support in seeking a pardon. “It’s a relief of sorts. Iran officials could use their good offices with Houthis for the reach-out with family of the victim. Some cash has been arranged for blood money and talks are on to get the family on board to seek pardon, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed,” a source told the publication.
It is learnt that using an appropriate intermediary equivalent of Rs 30 lakh has been kept ready, the report added.
Hailing from Kollengode in Kerala’s Palakkad district, the nurse was found guilty of murdering the Yemeni citizen in July 2017. She was handed capital punishment by a trial court in 2020 while Yemen’s Supreme Judicial Council upheld the verdict in November 2023.
Mahdi, reportedly died from an overdose of sedatives allegedly injected by Priya to retrieve her passport from him.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the Indian government is extending all possible help in the matter. “We are closely following the developments around the sentencing of Nimisha Priya. The government is extending all possible help in the matter,” he said last week.
