Banks suspect Amritsar family may flee country
Makhani family accuses bank of destroying their reputation
AMRITSAR: Despite the regional passport office (RPO) suspending the passports of city-based business family — on Monday — whose company had taken a loan of ₹253 crore, the respective banks are apprehensive that the family may still flee from the country, citing that the suspension is a temporary arrangement in the absence of an FIR.
Makhani family had taken the 253-crore loan from six banks — Canara Bank, Andhra Bank, IDBI Bank, OBC Bank, UCO Bank and Union Bank of India—for their company ‘Punjabi Basmati Rice Ltd’. The company has outstanding bank loan of ₹253.
The main lender, Canara Bank, had sent an communiqué to the RPO on August 2 apprehending that Kulwinder Singh Makhani, his wife Jasmeet Kaur,
TOOK LOAN FROM SIX BANKS — CANARA BANK, ANDHRA BANK, IDBI BANK, OBC BANK, UCO BANK AND UNION BANK OF INDIA—FOR THEIR COMPANY ‘PUNJABI BASMATI RICE LTD
both company directors, may ‘flee the country’. The communiqué states that the amount was a non-performing asset (NPA).THE RPO took action on August 13. However, the couple challenged the RPO order in the Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) on Monday. The HC has asked the RPO to reply by September 27 and made Canara Bank a party, asking its officials to file a separate reply.
Additional general manager, Canara bank, Arvind Kumar said, “In the light of the HC direction, the suspension is a temporary arrangement to stop the family from fleeing. An FIR against or look out circular by police is necessary to stop them.”
“However, the police have not been registering FIR against them, despite our complaint to the police commissioner around 50 days ago. This is public money and the police should take the matter seriously,” he said.
“Last, we had checked the rice mill in April during which, we found the stock of commodity missing from the place. The company has not provided us any sale detail and they became non-cooperative March onwards,” said Kumar.
ACP (investigation), Palwinder Singh, said, “We are investigating the matter and examining the role of bank officials who approved the loan.the inquiry is almost complete and we will take a stringent action accordingly. Till then, the bank should not worry as we will not allow the family to flee at any cost,” he said.
Makhani said, “Our company is 22-years-old with a good track record. We are dealing with Canara Bank since 2003. They destroyed our company’s reputation by not entertaining our request in time and cheated us by taking additional property.the bank did not even disburse the sanctioned amount.”
‘MY FAMILY IS BEING HARASSED’
“Now, they are harassing my family and trying to damage our reputation. The bank approached RPO using an anonymous complaint to get our passports impounded, following which we took the matter to high court so that the justice is served,” he added.