The CBI on Sunday conducted searches at six places including the office of Moser Baer India Ltd at Okhla Industrial Area in the national Capital and at residential premises of present and former Directors of the company.
The CBI has registered a case against Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath’s brother-in-law Deepak Puri, his wife Nita and son Ratul and their firm Moser Baer in a case of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act for cheating Central Bank of India to the tune of Rs 354 crore till November 29, 2014.
Besides Moser Baer MD Deepak Puri, whole time director Nita, then executive director Ratul, the CBI has also named directors of the accused firm Sanjay Jain and Vineet Sharma besides unknown public servants and private persons as accused in the case.
The CBI registered the case on Saturday, a day after it received a complaint from Central Bank’s Corporate Finance Branch here on Friday.
“Case was registered on 17.08.19 against the company; present and former officials of the said company; unknown public servants and unknown private persons on the allegations of cheating and defrauding banks,” a CBI spokesperson said in a statement.
In his compliant to the CBI, the Deputy GM of the Central Bank Murali Chitturi alleged that “MBIL has caused unlawful loss to our bank to the tune of Rs 354.51 crore as on 29.11.2014 and interest thereon by getting unlawful gains.”
As per RBI guidelines to ensure there is no leakage of revenue, the accused firm and their officials allegedly maintained accounts with a large number of banks outside the consortium. “The sales proceeds generated from the business working capital funds lent were not deposited with the complainant bank/consortium banks and were routed through other banks, thereby indicating fraudulent intentions for siphoning off the monies, the Central Bank alleged in its complaint which now part of the FIR.
MBIL made substantial investments in subsidiaries and exposure to its related entities amounting to Rs 14.56.12 crore instead of making efforts for redemption of the investments and recovery of receivables from sales, MBIL chose to write them off in order to divert and siphon off the loan amounts. This led to wrongful gains by the company and their officials and wrongful loss to the lender banks, the compliant further alleged.
MBIL has direct investment of Rs 735.87 crore in subsidiaries as on December 31, 2013. However, total exposure of the firm towards subsidiaries and related entities was Rs 1,456.12 crore. MBILgave corporate guarantee amounting to Rs 2,056.87 crore on behalf of its subsidiaries without any permission from the complainant bank before taking such large exposure on behalf of its subsidiaries, the bank alleged.
The bank also alleged that the accused company and its directors furnished forged documents to buttress their claims towards promoters’ contribution in the firm.
