CBI books ex-Aircel owner, conducts search in the city

HOLDING COMPANY of the WWO is Siva Investments and Holdings based in the Seychelles which is again controlled by Siva Group of Companies chaired by C. Sivasankaran, the agency alleged. WHEN WWO went into liquidation, IDBI Bank sanctioned another loan of

The Central Bureau of Investigation sleuths conducted searches in the city after registering a case against officials of the IDBI bank Chennai, British Virgin Islands based company and 38 others including Aircel founder C. Sivasankaran, 11 companies and their directors for allegedly cheating the bank to the tune of `600 crore.

Among the accused top bankers are M.S. Raghavan, the then CMD; Kishore Kharat, then CMD (currently CMD and CEO of Indian Bank); former Deputy managing director (DMD) B.K. Batra; and then DMD M.O. Rego, who is now MD and CEO of Syndicate Bank, the CBI said.

The CBI said that chairman of Siva Group of Companies is an accused in the case. He is a citizen of Seychelles. Seychelles-based Siva Investments and Holdings is an entity of the Siva Group and Siva Investments is a holding company of Win Wind Oy, the CBI said.

The Win Wind Oy company has its office in the city. The CBI officials also checked a few more premises of some of the accused in the case and collected some documents and ‘incriminating’ material.

According to the FIR registered by the CBI, in October 2010, the then senior bank officials and others committed fraud through the loan accounts of Axcel Sunshine limited, which has its office in British Virgin Islands, and Finlandbased Win Wind Oy.

However, in 2013, the Win Wind Oy applied for bankruptcy in Finland in October. The amount was declared non-performing asset.

In February 2014, the bank had sanctioned another loan of `523 crore to Axcel Sunshine, an associate of the Siva Group. “The funds were used to repay loans of other group companies, including Win Wind Oy,” CBI officials said.

The FIR alleges the role of Axcel Sunshine, BVI-based Broadcourt Investments and Lotus Ventures Investment; Indian Telecom Holdings (Mauritius); Siva Palm Corp (Singapore); and Siva Industries and Holdings and Sterling Agro Product and Processing.

“In flagrant violation of the RBI regulatory guideline on foreign investments in India, this is a case of alleged fraud by the executives of the bank, promoters of the group of companies involved to derive wrongful gains and cause corresponding loss of about `600 crore to the bank,” the FIR stated.