CBI files charge sheet against 18 in Rs 209 cr bank fraud case

New Delhi, Aug 25 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday said that it has filed charge sheet against 18 people including a Chartered Accountant and several others in connection with Rs 209 crore bank fraud case.

A CBI spokesperson here said that the agency has filed charge sheet against 18 persons, Adarsh Manchanda, the then AGM, Syndicate Bank, Mahesh Gupta, the then Manager, Syndicate Bank, Bharat Bomb, a Chartered Accountant, private persons Pavitra Kothari, Anoop Bartaria, Kamal Sharma, Mahender Meghwal, Ravi Prakash Sharma, Pragati Sharma, Dilip Kumawat, Kamal Atri, Satish Khandelwal, Gaurav Dhanwal, Vikram Jain, Daulat Raj Kothari, JLN Metal House through its partners, Riddima Infratech LLP through its partners and Samriddhi Siddhi Builders and Developers Pvt Ltd through its Directors.

The official said that the agency filed a charge sheet before a court in Rajasthan's Jaipur. The CBI had registered a case on March 23, 2017 on a complaint from Syndicate Bank against six private persons including the Chartered Accountant, and several others.

In the complaint it was alleged that 118 loan accounts were sanctioned and disbursed by three branches of Syndicate Bank. He said that the 118 loan accounts were Housing loan accounts, term loan accounts for purchase of commercial property of World Trade Park (WTP), OD limits and Foreign Letter of Credits.

He further said that Bomb, Udaipur based Chartered Accountant along-with his employees and others hatched a conspiracy with the branch officials of two branches of bank in Jaipur and one in Udaipur and got various credit facilities sanctioned. It was also alleged that several of the borrowers were found to be ordinary employees in firms owned by CA & others and not eligible for such high value loans. "During investigation, it was found that in furtherance of said conspiracy, the CA, a private person and others allegedly approached Branch officials of Syndicate Bank in Jaipur for getting Term Loans for purchasing commercial properties or units situated at World Trade Park Ltd in Jaipur on the basis of forged Income Tax Returns showing inflated income of the borrowers, forged quotations, invoices, purchase orders and work orders, forged CA Certificates and audited financial statements," he said.

It was also alleged that the then Manager of the Syndicate Bank recommended and the then AGM or Branch Head of the bank had sanctioned various credit facilities by violating Bank guidelines and without exercising due diligence.