Corruption
CBI files FIR in yet another loan fraud case worth 109 crores
New Delhi: An FIR has been registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation against one of the largest sugar refining companies for alleged cheating Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC), reported the Times of India.
Simbhaoli Sugars Limited, which is listed with the Bombay Stock exchange, is being alleged of cheating OBC of Rs.109 crore , a sum taken on the pretext of financing sugarcane farmers.
This is the second fraud reported by the OBC within three days. Earlier, a case was filed against a Karol Bagh jeweler for allegedly swindling Rs.390 crores.
The Karol Bagh case came into fore days after the PNB loan fraud, the biggest in India, was unearthed.
Again, the CBI has not acted on the bank’s complaint for three months as they had approached them in November 17, 2017. Earlier, CBI sat on OBC’s complaint in Dwarka Das case for six months.
In it’s latest FIR among those named by CBI include Simbhaoli Sugar’s Chairman and Managing Director Gurmit Singh Mann, Deputy Managing Director Gurpal Singh and eight others including CFO, executive and non-executive directors of the company apart from unknown officials of the public sector bank. The bank and CBI have claimed that Gurpal Singh is Deputy MD of the company while Simbhaoli’s website claims he is a Director.
In the latest FIR, CBI has alleged that Oriental Bank of Commerce sanctioned a loan amounting to Rs 148.59 crore to Simbhaoli Sugars in December 2011 after the company approached it with a proposal for financing sugarcane farmers under the tie-up arrangement with the company (with a maximum limit of Rs 3 lakh per farmer).
The bank’s Hapur branch disbursed loans to 5,762 farmers between January and March 2012 totaling Rs 148.59 crore. The loans were disbursed through individual loan accounts opened for farmers and consolidated amount of each disbursement was credited in the Escrow (current) account of Simbhaoli Sugars on the basis of undertaking given by the company that inputs like seed, fertilizers and other necessary equipments etc have been supplied by it to all the individual farmers.
It turned out that Simbhaoli issued improper KYC certificates in the names of farmers. The company transferred diverted the funds from the Escrow account to other accounts maintained by it with SBI, Punjab National Bank and UCO Bank through RTGS. This way, OBC claimed, Simbhaoli Sugars has misappropriated the money lent by it and “there is clear cut division of funds”.
