A day after Ludhiana-based industrialist Neeraj Saluja was arrested for defrauding a consortium of banks of ₹1,530 crore, a CBI court sent him to five-day remand on Saturday.
The CBI had sought seven-day custody of the accused, contending that other suspected bank officials and the private persons involved in the case also needed to be interrogated. However, the industrialists’ counsels, including Randeep Rai, Anand Chibber, Gautam Dutt and HS Dhanoa, contended that Saluja had already joined the CBI investigation five times, and his 30 staff members had also appeared before the investigating agency.
“The CBI should have interrogated the suspects by now as no bank officials have been questioned since the registration of the case. Neeraj has already joined the investigation multiple times,” the counsels told the court.
On August 6, 2020, the CBI had registered a case against a Ludhiana-based private company and its directors, including Neeraj, unknown public servants and private persons.
It was alleged that the directors of the private company had cheated a consortium of 10 banks, led by Central Bank of India, of a whopping ₹1,530.99 crore. An official, who did not want to be named said, they diverted a significant sum to parties related to them, and made adjustment entries such as over-invoicing procurement of machinery from non-reputed suppliers.
A significant amount of primary security against cash credit limit (CC limit) was allegedly disposed of by the accused to misappropriate bank money as sale proceeds of goods sold were not deposited with the bank.
{{/usCountry}}A significant amount of primary security against cash credit limit (CC limit) was allegedly disposed of by the accused to misappropriate bank money as sale proceeds of goods sold were not deposited with the bank.
{{/usCountry}}The private company in question, which is based in Ludhiana and has units at Malout, Nawanshahr (Punjab), Neemrana (Rajasthan) and Hansi (Haryana), produced yarns, and fabrics.
The accused were booked on August 6, 2020 under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) , 467 (forgery of valuable security, will), 420 (cheating), 471 (use a fraud document or electronic record), and 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.