Mumbai: Gitanjali Group owned by Mehul Choksi has lost its prestigious sightholdership with the world’s leading diamond mining company De Beers following his involvement in India’s biggest bank fraud along with his billionaire nephew Nirav Modi, reports The Times of India.

In an article published in TOI on February 22, 2018 under the heading ‘Gitanjali may lose De Beers sightholder status’, De Beers group had clarified that the company won’t do business with firms not complying with financial propriety and industry reputation issues.

In a latest reply, De Beers group spokesperson David Johnson said, “Gitanjali is no longer a sightholder of De Beers. We have removed Gitanjali’s name from our customer directory on global sightholder sale (GSS).”

Mehul Choksi, chairman and managing director (CMD) of Gitanjali Group, is alleged to have defrauded Punjab National Bank (PNB) to the tune of over Rs 6,100 crore in the matter of issuance of unauthorized and fraudulent Letters of Undertakings (LoUs) and Foreign Letters of Credit (FLCs) in favour of foreign suppliers of accused companies.

Barring a few, most of the companies to which FLCs and LOUs were issued by PNB are syndicate companies in the close circles of Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi. In order to avoid detection of fraudulent deals, accused bank officials, Choksi and directors of the companies deliberately omitted making entries of LoUs in the core banking system (CBS) of the bank.