By PTI

NEW DELHI: The CBI has a filed a fresh FIR against fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi for allegedly cheating a Canara Bank-led consortium to the tune of Rs 55.27 crore, officials said on Thursday.

The agency acted nearly a year after the bank gave its complaint on August 30, 2021 against Bezel Jewellery, earlier known as D’damas jewellery, a part of Gitanjali Gems, and its whole-time directors, including Choksi, Chetna Jhaveri, Dinesh Bhatia and Milind Limaye.

The Maharashtra government allowed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the case, granting sanction under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, which governs the agency, on February 22 this year.

The CBI conducted searches at the premises of Jhaveri, Bhatia and Limaye in Mumbai after registering the FIR on Tuesday.

The Canara Bank and the Bank of Maharashtra had sanctioned Rs 30 crore and Rs 25 crore respectively as working capital facility to Bezel Jewellery under a consortium agreement.

When the Punjab National Bank (PNB) flagged a Rs 13,000-crore fraud by Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi in January 2018, the other lending banks, at a meeting on February 21, 2018, decided to call the accounts of the group companies and the non-performing assets (NPAs).

They subsequently ordered a forensic audit that showed gross irregularities in the company’s accounts, the FIR alleged.

The outstanding amount, which was Rs 55.27 crore as on the date of the NPA in 2017-18,…