The CBI has filed three cases to probe alleged fraud worth Rs 743 crore committed by various persons by defaulting IDBI bank in Andhra Pradesh between 2009 and 2012 by availing Kisan Credit Card (KCC) and pisciculture loans which became non-performing assets.
Of the total fraud, the separate FIRs mentioned loan amounts of Rs 394 crore, Rs 160 crore and Rs 189 crore which were disbursed as loan amount from IDBI's Palangi branch in the state's West Godavari district.
The FIRs named three common persons including B.K. Sahoo, and two senior IDBI officers -- R. Damodaran (retired Chief General Manager) and Battu Rama Rao (then Deputy General Manager).
There are a total of 44 other persons who are accused in these FIRs filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday.
It is alleged that the loans were issued without proper loan documents, without conducting pre sanction and post sanction inspections and without ascertaining the end use of the loan.
The FIRs said that as per procedure laid down for sanctioning KCC loans, the maximum limit with regard to operation of primary activity or fish tank activity is 50 km from the branch location, however, Damodaran and Rao instructed the branch officials to ignore the condition.
Damodaran and Rao allegedly abused their official position breached the sanction limit of Rs 25 lakh for KCC loan and bypassed agri-processing centre and directed for the issuance of loans on the basis of intentionally overvalued collateral properties and furnished inflated net worth certificates in respect of borrowers, the FIR alleged.
The entire incident came to light after a complaint by an IDBI official in Hyderabad that about 220 borrowers, consisting of 22 aggregators, conspired with IDBI bank officials at its Basheerbagh (Hyderabad) and Siripuram (Visakhapatnam) branches, along with bank panel valuers, and availed Kisan Credit Card (KCC) and pisciculture loans through 220 loan accounts from different branches of the bank aggregating Rs 198.28 crore.
It was found that pisciculture or no other fish farming activity was ever taken up in the said lands in East and West Godavari and Krishna districts of Andhra Pradesh and Adilabad district in Telangana and that sanctioned loans were misappropriated.