Amid the fraud involving Punjab National Bank, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has shared a picture on Twitter where he claims that former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri had taken a Rs 5,000 loan from the public sector bank to buy a Premier Padmini.

The anecdote adds that after Shastri unexpectedly died in Tashkent in 1966, the bank approached his wife Lalita Shastri to repay the loan, which she did using her family pension.

Today, the car stands outside the family residence reminding people of an era of a different breed of men.

On February 14 this year, PNB disclosed\that it has detected some fraudulent transactions with financial implication of USD 1.77 billion (about Rs 11,346 crore) and the matter has been referred to law enforcement agencies for the recovery. "Four big jewellers -- Gitanjali, Ginni, Nakshatra and Nirav Modi -- are under scanner. The CBI and Enforcement Directorate is looking at their arrangements with various banks and end use of money," a senior official of a public sector bank told PTI. No immediate comments were available from these companies. There is strict instruction from the finance ministry to all banks that no big fish should go scot free and no honest borrower is harassed, the official said.