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Bank defaulters flee country, CBI files case following SBI complaint after 4 yrs
According to the complaint, seen by HT, owners of Ram Dev International Limited (RDIL) are said to be missing since 2016 when an inspection was carried out by SBI.
The State Bank of India (SBI) has filed a complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against a Delhi-based basmati export firm, alleging its promoters, who cheated a consortium of six banks of Rs 414 crore, are missing and have fled the country.
According to the complaint, seen by HT, owners of Ram Dev International Limited (RDIL) are said to be missing since 2016 when an inspection was carried out by SBI.
The central agency registered a case on April 28 naming the owners—Suresh Kumar, Naresh Kumar and Sangita—and lookout circulars (LOCs) have been issued against them, a procedure followed in all bank fraud cases.
According to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) proceedings in 2018, in which RDIL was dragged to the tribunal by a company named Mussadi Lal Krishna Lal for a payment default, it was informed that the promoters have fled to Dubai.
Despite the fraud being detected in 2016, SBI – the lead bank in the consortium – approached CBI in February this year with a delay of four years.
A spokesperson of SBI didn’t respond to HT’s phone calls and text queries. RDIL representatives could not be traced by HT.
The exposure of banks was at Rs 414 crore—Rs 173 crore from SBI, Canara Bank Rs 76 crore, Union Bank of India Rs 64 crore, Central Bank of India Rs 51 crore, Corporation Bank Rs 36 crore and IDBI Bank Rs 12 crore.
Indian agencies, including the CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Directorate of Revenue and Intelligence (DRI), are currently pursuing around 50 fugitives – mostly economic offenders – living abroad, through red notices, extradition requests and look out circulars (LoCs).
Some of the big names include Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Neeshal Modi, Mehul Choksi, Nitin and Chetan Sandesara, Lalit Modi and European middlemen Guido Ralph Haschke and Carlo Gerosa.
The government had informed Parliament last year that at least 16 extradition requests were pending in the UAE, the UK, Belgium, Italy, Egypt, the US and Antigua and Barbuda against various accused persons.
According to CBI FIR, reviewed by HT, RDIL was engaged in export of basmati rice to the Middle-East, Arabian and European countries from its three mills based in Karnal, Haryana. It has a registered office in Delhi and branch offices in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh and Dubai in the UAE as well.
The company’s loan account turned non-performing asset (NPA) in January 2016 after which a joint inspection of properties was conducted the same year in August and October.
It was found that “the entire machinery installed in the old unit was removed by the borrowers. Borrowers were not available at the time of joint inspection and Haryana police security guards were found deployed there,” according to SBI’s complaint, which is now part of CBI first information report (FIR).
“On inquiry, it has come to know that the borrowers are absconding and have left the country,” it added.
The FIR states that the accused promoters falsified the accounts, fudged the balance sheet in order to gain unlawfully at the cost of bank funds and unauthorisedly removed the plants and machinery from the factory premises without the consent of lenders.
