NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday issued a ‘Look Out Circular’ against former Chairman and Managing Director of Bhushan Steel, Sanjay Singhal, and vice-chairman of the company Aarti Singhal in a fraud case worth Rs 2,348 crore.
The agency said the company — fully acquired and renamed in 2018 by Tata Steel — through its directors/staff, fraudulently diverted Rs 2,348 crore from loan accounts of Punjab National Bank (Delhi and Chandigarh), Oriental Bank of Commerce (Kolkata), IDBI Bank (Kolkata) and UCO Bank (Kolkata) into the accounts of various companies or shell companies without any obvious purpose and thereby misused the funds.
“It was further alleged that the company availed various loan facilities from 33 banks/financial institutions from 2007-2014 to the tune of Rs 47,204 crore and defaulted on repayments. Subsequently, lead bank PNB declared the account as an NPA (non-performing asset), followed by other banks and financial institutions,” a statement by the central investigating agency said.
The agency also alleged that the accused entered into a criminal conspiracy with each other and public servants to cheat banks. “The accused dishonestly and fraudulently diverted huge amounts of bank funds through companies/ shell companies/entities etc. and deliberately defaulted in repayment and also claimed inadmissible CENVAT credit etc,” the CBI added. The CBI had filed a case of corruption and criminal conspiracy against the company and several others.