New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered an FIR against the top officials of three nationalised banks in connection with a fraud of Rs 600 crore.
The case was referred to the CBI by the Central Vigilance Commission.
According to sources, the CBI has registered an FIR against 15 top officials of IDBI bank, Axcel Sunshine Ltd and others on allegations of perpetrating fraud through the loan accounts of Winwind OY and former Aircel promoter company Axcel.
The FIR names 24 other persons including some private companies.
The CBI officials have questioned Kishor Kharat, then CMD IDBI who is now the CMD and CEO of Indian Bank, Subrato Gupta, then CGM IDBI who is now holding the position of ED IDBI, MO Rego, the then DMD IDBI and currently serving as MD and CEO of Syndicate Bank, among others.
The investigative team have also questioned Sanjeev Bafna, the then director of WWO, Winwind Power Energy ltd, Axcel Sunshine and Siva Industries and Holdings Ltd, C Sivasankaran, Chairman of Siva group of companies and Sivashankaran Saravanan, the then director of WWO, Winwind Power Energy Ltd.
Searches were conducted at 50 places across 10 cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Faridabad, Gandhi Nagar, Chennai, Bangaore, Belgaum, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Pune.
The fraud started eight years ago in October 2010, when IDBI bank sanctioned Rs322 crore loan to Win Wind Oy (WWO). The loan went NPA (non-payable account).
In February 2013, the IDBI bank sanctioned another loan of Rs 523 crore to Axcel Sunshine Ltd, a company based in the British Virgin Islands. Interestingly, Axcel Sunshine Ltd is connected to WWO through Siva Investments and Holding Ltd (SIHL), a Seychelles based company. It functioned as a holding company for WWO and Axcel Sunshine Ltd.
The loan taken by Axcel Sunshine was used for repaying the loans of other associate companies of Siva group including WWO.
“This is a flagrant violation of the regulatory guidelines of Reserve Bank of India in foreign investment in India. This is a case of fraud on the bank by the executives of the bank and promoters of the group of companies involved to derive wrongful gains and to cause loss to the bank to the tune of Rs600cr,” said a CBI source.
The CBI has named following companies as well in the FIR: Axcel sunshine ltd (British Virgin islands), Broadcourt investments (BVI), Indian telecom holdings ltd (Mauritius), Lotus ventures investments (BVI), Siva Palm Corp Ltd (Singapore), Siva Industries and Holdings Ltd (Chennai), Winwind OY (Finland), Sterling Agro Product and Processing Pvt Ltd (Chennai), Planet Pickles Pvt Ltd (Bangalore), Win wind power Energy Pvt ltd (Tiruvallur) and Siva Industries.
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