The CBI has booked computer manufacturer RP Info Systems and its officials for fraud to the tune of ₹515.15 crore on a consortium of banks, and carried out searches at the residences of all the accused and the corporate office in Kolkata on Wednesday, said officials.
It is alleged that the directors of the company, Shivaji Panja, Kaustuv Ray and Vinay Bafna, cheated Canara Bank and nine other members of the banking consortium to the tune of ₹515.15 crore.
Canara Bank has clarified that the complaint filed against RP Info Systems and its directors for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks, in which it is a member, is a revised one.
In a statement, Canara Bank said: “Under the consortium arrangement of 17 banks, Canara Bank financed a working capital limit of ₹40 crore (4.69%). We were not the leader of the consortium. The leader bank had already filed a case with the CBI in May 2015. The account had already been treated as fraud by our bank during October 2015 and reported to RBI. Consequent upon the leader bank relinquishing its role as the leader of the consortium and as directed by CBI (BS&FC), Kolkata, we were authorised by the remaining member banks to file a revised complaint with CBI which we have filed on 26.02.2018.”
In 2015, IDBI Bank, once the leader of the consortium before relinquishing the position in 2013, had filed a complaint against the company to the tune of ₹180 crore.
The other members of the bank consortium were State Bank of India, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur and State Bank of Patiala (both now part of the SBI), Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Patiala and Federal Bank. It is alleged that loans were taken on the basis of false and fabricated documents.
The bank, in its complaint on February 26, now part of the FIR, has alleged that the company, which manufactured computers under the brand name Chirag, had taken funds from the consortium from time to time from 2012 onwards. These loans have become NPAs, it said,
The banks alleged that the company manipulated financial statements and did not route sale proceeds through the loan account.
PNB auditor arrested
Meanwhile, the CBI on Wednesday arrested MK Sharma, Internal Chief Auditor of PNB, as part of an ongoing investigation of cases related to the Nirav Modi group and Gitanjali Gems group. Sharma, who is of Chief Manager rank at PNB, was responsible for auditing the systems and practices of the bank’s Brady House branch, which is at the centre of the Nirav Modi-perpetrated scam. The accused will be produced on Thursday in the designated court in Mumbai, said CBI sources.