PNB scam: Mehul Choksi asks employees to look for other jobs in letter, says it's tough to clear dues

Mehul Choksi, Gitanjali Gems promoter and one of the main accused in the Rs 11,400 crore Punjab National Bank scam, wrote a letter to his employees telling them that he would not be able to pay their dues, according to reports. According to a letter released by his lawyer Sanjay Abbot, he also told his employees that he is facing a lot of problems due to the manner in which the multiple investigative and government agencies have started to create havoc.

#BREAKING -- #BigBankScam | “I am facing a lot of problems due to the manner in which the multiple investigative agencies/ government agencies have started to create a havoc, hell-bent upon stopping the operations”: Mehul Choksi to his employees in a letter released by his lawyer pic.twitter.com/wQ1hJBwe63

— News18 (@CNNnews18) February 24, 2018

He also informed his employees that it is very tough for him to clear their dues or to pay future salaries, “in view of the seizing of the various bank accounts and other properties," reported The Indian Express. He also asked his employees to look for other career opportunities and retain their office laptops and mobile phones till their dues are cleared, the report added. Choksi added that the relieving letters and experience certificates for the employees would be issued to them if they desire. “The justice that I deserve is far off as it shall take time to prove my innocence, and the future seems uncertain,” Choksi wrote, according to India Today. “Even the operations in India have come to a standstill and restarting the same make take time. In such a situation, it shall be wrong on my part to force you all to sit ideal (sic) waiting for the work to restart when the future for you is all bright. I will face my destiny and I know that I have done nothing wrong and ultimately, truth shall prevail,” he said in the letter. 

I will face my destiny and I know I have done nothing wrong and ultimately the truth shall prevail: #MehulChoksi to his employees in a letter released by his lawyer Sanjay Abbot

— ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2018

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He ended with a note that his letter is in the interest of the employees but is likely to be given “some different colour by various vested interests” and he only wants the well being of the employees, according to Zee News. Choksi, along with Nirav Modi, is being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and other probe agencies after it recently came to light, following a complaint by the PNB, that they allegedly cheated the nationalised bank to the tune of Rs 11,400 crore, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank. The CBI and the ED have registered two FIRs each to probe the case. Both Modi and Choski are said to have left the country before criminal cases were lodged against them.