(Image source from: Business Standard)

On the day of her retirement, Usha Ananthasubramanian, who was serving as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Allahabad Bank was dismissed on Monday for her alleged failure to act on the massive bank fraud carried out by absconding diamond merchant Nirav Modi and associates.

She was slated to retire on Monday but was dismissed just ahead of that.

Before moving to Allahabad Bank, Ananthasubramanian was the MD of Punjab National Bank between August 2015 and May 2017.

Three months ago, Ananthasubramanian was forcibly divested of all her powers as MD of Allahabad Bank, after her name figured in Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charge sheet in the Rs. 13,500-crore Nirav Modi-PNB scam case.

In the charge sheet, CBI allegedly stated that Ananthasubramanian and some other senior bank officials did not take any disciplinary measures despite being aware of the fraud. The agency has also alleged that Ananthasubrahmanian had unauthorizedly delegated the Reserve Bank of India's guidelines to work to her subordinates without any follow-up action.

The Centre has also given the go-ahead to the investigating agency to prosecute Ananthasubramanian and former PNB Executive Director (ED) Sanjiv Sharan. The government is yet to decide the action it plans to take on another PNB ED K V Brahmaji Rao, whose name also figured in the CBI charge sheet.

By Sowmya Sangam