CBI CONDUCTS SEARCHES AT AROUND 187 PLACES ACROSS THE COUNTRY RELATED TO BANK FRAUD CASES AMOUNTING TO Rs. 7200 CRORE (APPROX.)

In a large scale operation against frauds in banks,

the Central Bureau of Investigation is today conducting searches at around 187 places in different States/UTs including in Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Dadra & Nagar Haveli related to Bank Fraud Cases.

CBI has registered around 42 cases of bank frauds involving Rs. 7200 crore (approx.). The banks involved (including consortium members) are Andhra Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Indian Overseas Bank, SBI, Allahabad Bank, Canara Bank, Dena Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India, Union Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of Maharashtra and Bank of India. .

The places being searched are in Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Dehradun, Noida, Baramati, Mumbai, Thane, Silvassa, Kalyan, Amritsar, Faridabad, Bengaluru, Tirupur, Chennai, Madurai, Quilon, Cochin, Bhavnagar, Surat, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Chandauli, Bhatinda, Gurdaspur, Morena, Kolkata, Patna, Krishna, Hyderabad and Bhopal. Out of these 42 cases, there are 4 cases of more than Rs. 1000 crore (approx.) and 11 cases of fraud amount of Rs. 100 crore (approx.) to Rs. 1000 crore (approx.).

The prominent cases registered include:- a case registered against a Malad (East) Mumbai / Bhopal based private company; its 5 Directors/Additional Director/Guarantors and unknown public servants on the allegations that the accused Directors and Guarantors of the said Mumbai / Bhopal based company engaged in bulk trading of agro commodities, in connivance with unknown bank officials & others fraudulently availed credit facilities of Rs. 6000 crore (approx.) from SBI, Bhopal by resorting to falsification of accounts and forgery of documents, such as bill of lading, falsely showing movement of goods etc. The company allegedly siphoned off the funds & defaulted in payment of the dues and caused loss of Rs. 1266.63 crore (approx.) to the bank.

One more case has been registered against two private companies based at Nehru Place, New Delhi; its Chairman; Managing Director; Director and other unknown public servants/private persons. It was alleged that the Directors and Guarantors of the said Delhi based company engaged in engineering procurement and construction, in connivance with unknown bank officials & others fraudulently availed credit facilities of Rs. 1290 crore (approx.) from SBI, New Delhi by resorting to falsification of accounts and forgery of documents. The company allegedly siphoned off the funds & defaulted in payment of the dues and caused loss of Rs. 1100.73 crore (approx.) to the bank.

Another case has been registered against Chennai based private company; its promoter; Managing Director and 7 other office bearers including Chief Accounts officer and unknown public servants/unknown others on the complaint of IDBI Bank Ltd. on behalf of other Consortium member Banks viz. Allahabad Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Syndicate Bank, State Bank of India, Dena Bank (now Bank of Baroda), Bank of Maharashtra, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Oriental Bank of Commerce, UCO Bank and Canara Bank for cheating and causing loss of Rs. 1083.14 crore (approx.) to the banks. .

It was alleged that the accused persons have conspired with each other and cheated IDBI Bank & other consortium member banks in the matter of availing and utilisation of the credit facilities sanctioned. In pursuance of the conspiracy, the company has manipulated their books of accounts by making fictitious entries based on false documents and submitted false & manipulated financial statements to the consortium of banks for availing the credit facilities. The sanctioned amounts were utilised / diverted for purposes other than for which the same were released by way of fictitious transactions.

Yet another case has been registered against Chairman and Directors of a Varanasi based private company and unknown public servants on the allegations of submitting wrong stock statement and Balance Sheet to induce Bank of Baroda for fraudulent and dishonest availment/sanction of Bank loan. The company has allegedly defrauded Bank of Baroda to the tune of Rs. 518.44 crore (approx.) as on 31.12.2018. It was further alleged that the said company has also defrauded Punjab National Bank to the tune of Rs. 517.99 crore (approx.) adopting the same modus-operandi.

During searches, incriminating documents have been recovered so far. Searches are still in progress.