CBI books private firm in Hyderabad for defrauding SBI of Rs 65 crore

The CBI on Tuesday said it has registered a case against a Hyderabad-based private company and eight others including directors and unknown public servants for cheating the State Bank of India (SBI) to the tune of Rs 65 crore, given out as loans which have since turned bad.

On a complaint filed by the SBI, a case has been registered against Jay Ambe Gowri Chem Ltd (formerly known as Jay Ambe Gowri Petro Chem Ltd), its Chairman and Managing Director Narendra Kumar Patel, and others including directors for defrauding the bank, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official said.

In its complaint the bank alleged that the company had been banking with it since 2009 after taking over the credit facilities under availment from Axis Bank. 

"The credit facilities included cash credit, term loan and letter of credit," the complaint said.

According to the SBI, the account became non-performing asset (NPA) on April 30, 2014, and was subsequently declared as fraud and reported to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in October 2016. 

The bank also alleged that the company had removed the stocks without the consent of the bank. "Even the claims over the properties given as collateral were disputed and there was diversion of funds," it alleged.

There were heavy cash deposits and withdrawals, it added.

Last week, the CBI booked 41 persons including three officials of the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) for cheating the bank to the tune of Rs 539 crore in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The federal agency registered two separate cases relating to large-scale frauds in IDBI branches in the two states in sanctioning pisciculture loans.

The central agency booked the accused on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, criminal misconduct and misappropriation.

A day before that, the CBI arrested the directors of Hyderabad-based firm, Totem Infrastructure Ltd (TIL), in connection with its ongoing investigation into a Rs 1,394 crore loan fraud case involving a consortium of eight banks led by the Union Bank of India (UBI).

IANS inputs