BENGALURU: A builder from the city, in collusion with 15 others, has allegedly cheated the State Bank of India (SBI) to the tune of Rs 9.39 crore. The Economic Offences Branch of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Chennai, has registered an FIR against the builder N D Ravi, a resident of Malleswaram, and 15 others. However, the CBI Special Court granted anticipatory bail to Ravi, imposing certain conditions.
According to the complaint filed by Assistant Manager S G Manjunath, SBI, Retail Asset Credit Processing Centre (RACPC), Lalbagh, Ravi entered into a Joint Development Agreement on January 17, 2013, with the landowners, proposing to construct 132 flats in 7 blocks at Seegehalli in Whitefield.
Ravi, an SBI customer, introduced them to the bank and they subsequently opened their accounts with the bank. Having applied for housing loans in SBI, the 15 accused bought apartments from the ‘Garden Residency’ project.
Income Tax returns and salary certificates of the accused, based on which the loans were fixed, were found to be fabricated. Hence the fraud was reported to the RBI on August 3, 2018. When confronted, the accused builder admitted to diverting funds, which were being used towards another project being developed by him. It was found that pre-EMIs were being paid by the builder and hence, the accounts were not Non Performing Assets for some time.
How the fraud came to light
On January 2018, due to some fraud cases detected across banks, a red alert was sounded and a combing operation of all loan accounts was carried out in banks. It was then found that the addresses and workplace details mentioned in the loan documents of all the 15 borrowers were wrong. Only four of the 15 borrowers were available in the given addresses, but none of them were employed in the offices as per the details submitted to the bank. Two of those borrowers were also sanctioned car loans.