CBI registers 42 cases, searches 187 places
NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday conducted searches in 187 locations across the country in connection with 42 bank fraud cases involving funds of nearly Rs 7,200 crore. The searches were conducted in states like Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
Officials here said that the banks that were defrauded (including consortium members) are Andhra Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Indian Overseas Bank, SBI, Allahabad Bank, Canara Bank, Dena Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, Central Bank of India, Union Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of Maharashtra and Bank of India. Of these 42 cases, four are of more than Rs 1,000 crore and 11 cases of fraud between Rs 100 crore to Rs. 1000 crore.
The searches are still continuing in Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Dehradun, Noida, Baramati, Mumbai, Thane, Silvassa, Kalyan, Amritsar, Faridabad, Bengaluru, Tirupur, Chennai, Madurai, Quilon, Cochin, Bhavnagar, Surat, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Chandauli, Bhatinda, Gurdaspur, Morena, Kolkata, Patna, Krishna, Hyderabad and Bhopal. "During searches, incriminating documents have been recovered so far. Searches are still in progress," officials here said.
According to the CBI, in one of the cases, they have booked Malad (East) Mumbai and Bhopal based Advantage Overseas Pvt Ltd and its officials including five directors. There were allegations that the accused directors Shrikant Bhasi, Dinesh Arkot Selvaraj, Manish Kumar Singh, Gagan Sharma and Jijo John engaged in bulk trading of agro commodities, in connivance with unknown bank officials & others fraudulently availed credit facilities of Rs. 6000 crore from SBI in Bhopal by resorting to falsification of accounts and forgery of documents. The company allegedly siphoned off the funds and defaulted in payment of the dues and caused loss of Rs. 1266.63 crore to the bank.