NEW DELHI: The CBI has booked former chairman-cum-MD of UCO Bank Arun Kaul in connection with an alleged loan fraud of Rs 621 crore causing a loss of over Rs 737 crore to the bank.
Besides Kaul, the agency has also booked Era Infra Engineering Infra India Ltd, its CMD Hem Singh Bharana, two chartered accountants — Pankaj Jain and Vandna Sharda — and Pawan Bansal of Altius Finserve Private Limited for siphoning of the bank loans.
In its complaint, the bank has alleged that two loans were issued to the company in 2010 — Rs 200 crore in March and Rs 450 crore in October.
The Rs 200 crore loan was issued for repayment of high-cost debt to Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and IFCI.
According to CBI sources, the loan was not utilised for the sanctioned purpose and was secured by producing false end-use certificates issued by chartered accountant Jain and by fabricating business data.
Kaul, who was CMD of Kolkata-based bank between 2010 and 2015, allegedly facilitated the accused company in obtaining the said loan.
“...No amount was used to repay the dues of Central Bank of India and Punjab National Bank, and only Rs 59 lakh was repaid towards dues of IFCI, while the purpose of the loan was to repay dues of these banks,” the CBI said.
In case of the Rs 450 crore loan too, the funds were utilised for purposes other than stipulated in the sanction.
The account was declared NPA as on July 7, 2013, by the bank and the present balance as on December 31, 2017 is Rs 737.88 crore. The CBI spokesperson said the agency carried out searches at 10 locations (eight in Delhi, two in Mumbai) on Saturday.