The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked a Delhi-based company, Shilpi Cable Technologies Limited, and its promoters, for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks to the tune of ₹1,000 crore.
Among those named as accused are Mukesh Kumar Gupta and his son Manish Goel. The case has been registered on a complaint from the IDBI Bank, which is a part of the consortium.
The bank has alleged that the facility of Letters of Credit was misused, funds were diverted, and excess payments were made for purchases from one RCI Industries and Technologies Limited. Large-scale cash withdrawals were also detected.
The total amount of fraud reported by the IDBI Bank is ₹211.11 crore and other consortium banks is ₹777.49 crore, according to the CBI’s case.
The borrowing company, which had started with the manufacturing of cables used in the telecom, automobile and power sectors, was incorporated as a 50:50 joint venture between Rosenberger Hochfrequenztechnik Gmbh and Co. (RB) Germany and Shilpi Communications Private Limited (SCPL). SCPL bought RB’s 50% stake in the equity for a total consideration of ₹22 crore in 2008.
The company took credit facilities from the banks. According to the IDBI Bank, from January 2017 onwards, repayments became irregular. The account was later declared a non-performing asset.
A forensic audit detected evidence of alleged misappropriation and cheating through transactions with related entities. The company exports products mostly to Dubai.
Exports worth ₹434.56 crore in 2015-16 and ₹618.70 crore in 2016-17 were made, against which debtors’ outstanding were ₹449.33 crore and ₹846.11 crore. The bank raised questions as to why the company exported goods in 2016-17 when the previous outstanding had not been cleared.
