S Raman, former chairman of Canara Bank, has voluntarily stepped down from the RBI-appointed committee that was looking into bank frauds and bad loan divergences after his name figured in a CBI charge-sheet. The CBI, last Thursday, named Raman and another former Canara Bank chairman, AC Mahajan, in connection with a ₹146-crore loan default by Winsome Diamonds. The diamond firm has defaulted on more than ₹7,000 crore of loans.

Raman, who last worked with SEBI as whole-time member between 2013 and 2017, said the development has caused a lot of anguish to him. In a letter to the committee, Raman said “keeping with the lofty standards of corporate governance” recommended by the committees he has been associated with, he “would not work with any government or regulatory committee until his name is cleared”. A copy of the letter was reviewed by BusinessLine .

Sources told BusinessLine that the CBI was mainly zeroing in on all top bank officials who were known to be close to the former finance minister in the UPA government.

Raman was part of the PJ Nayak committee, which reviewed governance of bank boards in 2014. He also assisted the Uday Kotak committee on corporate governance, which submitted its report last year.

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