CBI court frames charges in ₹1,301-crore bank fraud in Chandigarh

The CBI had registered an FIR on April 7, 2017, following a written complaint of Punjab National Bank, Large Corporate Branch, Chandigarh (Lead Bank), against the company and its directors

The special CBI court has framed charges against nine accused in the 2017 ₹1,301.67-crore bank fraud case. A city-based company and bank officials had allegedly cheated a consortium of banks led by Punjab National Bank.

The court framed charges against nine. The sanction was not granted for the remaining three accused by the concerned department. (HT File Photo)

Charges have been framed under sections120-B r/w 420, 467, 468 & 471 and 13(1) (d) of Prevention of Corruption Act against M/s Kudos Chemie Limited, its directors Jitendra Singh, Gurmeet Sodhi and the staff of PNB, LCB, Chandigarh, including the then chief manager Om Prakash Kathpal and managers Kamlesh Wadhawan, Devinder Kumar Gupta, Vijay Kumar Arora and Anil Kumar Khosla.

The CBI had registered an FIR on April 7, 2017, following a written complaint of Punjab National Bank, Large Corporate Branch, Chandigarh (Lead Bank), against the company and its directors.

The bank in its complaint had alleged: “It discounted 330 export bills from July 2012 to November 2014, which remained unrealised. The borrower company in order to get the bills discounted, had submitted various fake documents and diverted funds from credit facilities.”

During investigation, CBI found that the accused public servants, in conspiracy with directors of the company, caused wrongful loss to the bank to the tune of ₹,1301.67 crore.

They abused their official position and dishonestly recommended a proposal for sanction of Adhoc Foreign Outward Usance Bill Purchase of ₹20 crore and ₹8 crore to the accused company on two occasions. They also disbursed more funds under PC limit by not considering margin money, the investigation found.

CBI mentioned that the bank account statements of the company were within the reach of bank officials, but officials allowed the use of funds availed through discounting of bills for the purpose that loan was not sanctioned for.

Public prosecutor for the CBI, Narinder Singh, argued, “Economic offences are deep- rooted conspiracies causing huge wrongful loss of public funds which need to be viewed seriously as financial offences affecting the economy of the country as a whole and causing serious threat to the financial health of the country.”

He added that the role of each accused has been proven and that there was sufficient documentary and oral evidence.

The court framed charges against nine. The sanction was not granted for the remaining three accused by the concerned department.

CBI said further investigation was kept open.