The CBI has booked Faridabad-based Richa Industries Limited and 11 others for allegedly cheating the Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) and the erstwhile Corporation Bank of ₹236.74 crore. Several bank officials are also under the scanner.
Among those named in the FIR are Sandeep Gupta, Lavesh Kansal, Prabhakar Kotakote, Abhay Bansal, Nitin Agarwal, Manish Gupta, Bhawana Singhal, Sushil Gupta, Sonia Tahiliani, Jai Prakash Malhotra and Neeraj Bajaj.
The company was initially into textile products and later diversified into various other sectors. It took credit facilities under multi-lender arrangement over a period of time. However, due to non repayment of dues, the account was classified as non-performing asset (NPA) by both the banks in July-December 2017. However, they were reported as fraud to the Reserve Bank of India in April-August this year.
According to the IOB’s complaint, a forensic audit of the loan account revealed multiple irregularities. The company showed losses by overstating the consumption of entire stock during 2015-17, “which was abnormally too high as compared to the past trend”.
While there was an indiscriminate use of funds between the textile and another division, there were also co-related transactions between them in alleged violation of the procedures. The auditors also found evidence indicating wilful diversion of funds.
Lapses by officials
The FIR mentioned that an internal inquiry revealed lapses on the part of certain officials. “Pre-disbursement clearances were not obtained before making disbursements... post sanction terms and conditions had also not been complied with. The credit report on the purported suppliers was not obtained and the letters of credit were devolved 85 times amounting to ₹42.18 crore,” it said.
It is alleged that the branch officials did not verify the purpose for which amounts were transferred by the company. “They never bothered to correspond with the borrower regarding whatever transactions the company had undertaken,” alleged the bank, adding that a term loan of ₹10 crore was sanctioned in 2017 and released without compliance of sanction terms.
Non-fund based limit of ₹23 crore was availed as fund-based cash credit limit without any regularisation.
