4 held in Rs 7.5 crore PNB loan scam

| | NEW DELHI
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4 held in Rs 7.5 crore PNB loan scam

Saturday, 22 September 2018 | Staff Reporter | NEW DELHI

With the arrest of four people, including an official of Punjab National Bank (PNB)’s Brady House branch in Mumbai whose name figured in the Nirav Modi controversy, the Delhi Police claimed to have busted a loan racket on Friday. The accused have been identified as Amarjeet Singh, Ajay Kumar Sharma, Suresh and P K Varun (Assistant General Manager) of PNB.

“The accused Amarjeet Singh in connivance with PNB officials got sanctioned a loan to the tune of Rs 7.5 crore to open a luxurious F Bar and Lounge at Connaught Place in the national Capital.

After the Nirav Modi incident, the accused Amarjeet left his address and even switched off his phone since his loan was also connected with the same branch as that of Nirav’s. The accused operated the F Bar & Lounge for three years and later closed it without repaying the loans and other liabilities,” said Suvashis Choudhary, Additional Commissioner of Police, Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police.

“Based on a tip off, a raid was conducted by the Economic Offences Wing of the Delhi Police on September 11, following which the accused Singh was arrested. During interrogation, it was learnt the accused used to obtain loan on the basis of forged and fabricated sale deeds of the property being offered as collateral security with the banks,” said Chaudhary.

“On the basis of fake documents, the accused opened an account at PNB’s Mayur Vihar branch in the name of Sarita with the help of the then Bank Manager Sheetal Garg. The obtained loan of Rs 49.90 lakh was used to set up a temporary factory at Surajpur in Noida,” said Chaudhary.

“Another accused, Sharma, the main player for facilitating sanctioning of loan in connivance with accused Singh opened a dummy company in the name of a ‘Ply Mouth Ventures Pvt Ltd’ and availed Rs 5 crore cash credit facility in the name of the dummy company,” said Chaudhary.

 “The loans were transferred into other accounts and siphoned off. The accused managed to obtain Rs 2 crore Over Draft (OD) facility from the same bank which was also transferred into another account and misappropriated. These amounts were sanctioned against the collateral security of the properties situated at Delhi which were bogus and never existed,” said Chaudhary.

 “The account holder never visited Mumbai and the formalities of opening account and equitable mortgage of property was facilitated in Delhi by Varun, the

Assistant General Manager of PNB. Varun’s son was also involved in the operation of F Bar & Lounge and owned 20 per cent share in the company running the Lounge,” said Choudhary.

 “During investigation, it was learnt a part of the amount to the tune of Rs 7 crore disbursed by PNB Brady House Branch was utilized in the opening of high end luxurious F bar and Lounge. The bank accounts of the accused persons where the loan amount was disbursed and thereafter siphoned off were identified and have been frozen,” said Chaudhary.

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