Bank fraud case: CBI raids multiple cities of Bhushan Power & Steel Limited

The CBI Sunday carried out searches at 18 locations connected to Bhushan Power and Steel Limited after registering a case of cheating amounting to Rs 2,348 crore against chairman Sanjay Singhal and others, officials said.

Loans worth Rs 47,204 crore were availed from 33 banks and financial institutions from 2007 to 2014 and the company defaulted on their repayments, a CBI spokesperson said.

The searches were carried out at 18 locations in a number of cities, including the Delhi-NCR, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Orissa, at the office and residential premises of the company, its directors and promoters and their associates in the bank fraud case, the officials said.

The CBI has booked Sanjay Singhal, chairman and managing director of the company, Aarti Singhal, vice chairman of the company, directors Ravi Prakash Goyal, Ram Naresh Yadav, Hardev Chand Verma, Ravinder Kumar Gupta and one Ritesh Kapoor besides unidentified public servants.

The company deliberately defaulted on repayment and also claimed inadmissible credit causing a loss approximately of of Rs 2,348 crore to the banks, the CBI alleged.

"It was alleged that the said private company (Bhushan Steel) through its directors/staff, fraudulently diverted Rs 2,348 crore (approx) from the loan account of Punjab National Bank (IFB New Delhi & IFB Chandigarh); Oriental Bank of Commerce (Kolkata); IDBI Bank (Kolkata) and UCO Bank (IFB Kolkata) into the accounts of various companies/shell companies without any obvious purpose and thereby misused the funds" the spokesperson said.

He said it was alleged that the accused entered into a criminal conspiracy among themselves and with unknown public servants and others to cheat the banks and financial institutions.