2 UB Group cos settled dues just before KFA sought fresh loan

Just a month before the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines approached the IDBI Bank for a corporate loan of Rs 950 crore in October 2009, two UB Group companies had settled their outstanding dues and obtained 'no dues' certificates from the bank.

This was mentioned in the charge sheet filed by CBI on Tuesday in a special court here.

UB Group was a promoter of the defunct KFA.

According to the charge sheet, the UB Group had dealings with IDBI Bank in the past.

"Its (UB group) associate concerns WIE Engineering and United Breweries Limited (UBHL) had defaulted against the credit facilities from IDBI in the past," the charge sheet said.
 

"However, just before the KFA approached IDBI for a corporate loan of Rs 950 crore, both these group companies settled the matters by way of one time settlement (OTS), pursuant to which UBL was issued a no dues certificate," it added.

"The bank issued no dues certificate to the borrower in October 2009 prior to the sanction of fresh loans of Rs 150 crore, Rs 200 crore and Rs 750 crore," the charge sheet said.

The CBI, which is investigating the IDBI loan default case involving beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya, has said that he himself stood as a personal guarantor for availing loans totalling up to Rs 1,300 crore.

The investigation also revealed that the conspiracy to cheat IDBI was allegedly hatched among Mallya, former CFO of the Kingfisher Airlines A Raghunathan, former chairman of IDBI Yogesh Aggarwal, IDBI executive B K Batra and others in 2009.

Thereafter, Mallya met Aggarwal and Batra for seeking loans from IDBI, the charge sheet said.

"In order to facilitate sanction of loans, the past defaults in the account of UB Engineering (another group company) and WIE Engineering were settled and no dues certificates were issued," it said.

Subsequently, Mallya directed Raghunathan via a mail in October 2009 to immediately fill the application for seeking corporate loan of Rs 950 crore from IDBI, it said.