CBI files charge-sheet against Bhatnagars in bank fraud case

Ahmedabad:

The CBI today filed an over 19000 pages charge-sheet and related documents against over half a dozen accused in Rs 2654 crore bank loan defraud case by Vadodara-based Diamond Power Infrastructure Ltd. (DPIL) in a designated CBI court here.

The probe agency in its charge-sheet has accused DPIL founder S N Bhatnagar and his two sons Amit Bhatnagar and Sumit Bhatnagar, MD and Joint MD of the electric equipment manufacturing company and former General Manager of Bank of India V V Agnihotri and retired DGM P K Shrivastava and two others of criminal conspiracy and cheating and under provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.

While Bhatnagar and his sons were nabbed by CBI from a hotel in Udaipur in April this year the two bank officials who were posted as DGM and AGM of the bank in Vadodara earlier on, were nabbed a few days ago.

The CBI in its FIR lodged earlier had alleged that DPIL, through its management, fraudulently availed credit facilities from a consortium of 11 banks (both public and private) since 2008, leaving behind an outstanding debit of Rs 2,654.40 crore as of June 29, 2016. The loan was declared a non-performing asset in 2016-17.

. Both the bank officials named in the charge-sheet had allegedly shown undue favour in the sanction of the working capital limits to the company in 2008.

When the consortium was formed in 2008, Axis Bank was the lead bank for the term loan and the Bank of India was the lead bank for cash credit limits. It is alleged that the firm, with active connivance of officials from various banks, managed to get enhanced credit facilities. As per the CBI, the company had allegedly submitted false stock statements to the lead bank by treating receivables more than 180 days (non-current asset) as less than 180 days (current asset) to get more drawing power in their cash credit accounts.

DeshGujarat