FIR registered in J&K Bank loan fraud case
MONETARY BENEFITS WERE CONFERRED UPON RICE EXPORTS INDIA AGRO LTD DISHONESTLY, RESULTING IN A LOSS OF ₹1124.45 CRORE TO THE J&K BANK
JAMMU: The Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB) lodged an FIR on Saturday in the Jammu and Kashmir Bank loan fraud case involving an amount of over ₹1,100 crore, officials said.
The said amount was advanced by the bank to Rice Exports India (REI) Agro Ltd. Soon after the registration of the FIR, different teams carried out extensive searches at the houses of over a dozen accused bank officials, including its former chairman Mushtaq Ahmad Sheikh, at nine locations in Kashmir, four in Jammu and three in Delhi, an ACB spokesperson said in a statement here.
He said the houses of REI Agro’s chairman Sanjay Jhunjhunwala and vice president and managing director Sandeep Jhunjhunwala were also searched in Delhi. The ACB registered a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) on allegations that the officials of the bank’s branches at Mumbai’s Mahim and Delhi’s Ansal Plaza had sanctioned loans to the tune of ₹800 crore in favour of REI Agro on the basis of fake documents and in violation of the laid-down banking procedure between 2011 and 2013, which resulted in the accounts becoming non-performing assets (NPAS) in 2014, thereby causing a huge financial loss to the bank.
It emerged during the PE that REI Agro, which had shown its head office in Kolkata and corporate office in New Delhi, approached the Mahim branch of the bank, even though it did not have an office in Mumbai, and got loans or advances worth ₹550 crore sanctioned in its favour, the spokesperson said, adding that the Vasant Vihar branch of the bank in New Delhi also sanctioned ₹139 crore in the firm’s favour against the supplier bill discounting facility and takeovers.
He said the company approached the Mahim and Vasant Vihar branches of the bank for sanctioning of the advances to make payments to farmers, in accordance with the terms and conditions laid down in the loan sanction order of the bank.
“The company brazenly violated the rules in connivance with bank officials, who allowed disbursement of the loan through joint liability groups (JLGS), though the company had already received the paddy and was not entitled to disburse the loan under such circumstances,” he said.
These loans or advances were sanctioned and disbursed by the officers and officials of the bank’s Mahim, Mumbai and Vasant Vihar, New Delhi branches, under the patronage of the then chairman of the bank.the spokesperson said huge monetary benefits were conferred upon the company dishonestly and fraudulently, which resulted in inflicting a huge loss of ₹1124.45 crore to the bank.