ABG Shipyard Bank Loan Scam: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday questioned former Chairman and Managing Director of ABG Shipyard Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal in connection with its probe into the alleged Rs 22,848 crore bank scam. Without giving any other information including the date of interrogation, the officials said that Agarwal was questioned recently.
Let us tell you that this alleged bank scam of Rs 22,848 crore is the biggest such case registered by any central agency. The CBI is investigating it after registering the case on February 7 on the basis of a complaint given by the State Bank of India (SBI) on August 25, 2020. Officials said that the central probe agency has issued a look out circular to prevent the accused in the case from fleeing the country.
Officials said the agency has booked the then executive director of ABG Shipyard Santhanam Muthuswamy, directors Ashwini Kumar, Sushil Kumar under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) related to criminal conspiracy, cheating, breach of trust and abuse of official position and the Anti-Corruption Act. Agarwal and Ravi Vimal Nivedita have also been named in the FIR. Soon after registering the case, the CBI had searched 13 premises on February 12.
Banks used to line up to give loan to the company
There was a time when there was a line of banks to give loans to ABG Shipyard. SBI, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Bank of India, Life Insurance Corporation of India, IFCI and Yes Bank used to stand in this queue. Now the same company has defrauded 28 banks of Rs 22,842 crore.
ABG Shipyard owes Rs 7,089 crore to ICICI Bank, Rs 3634 crore to IDBI Bank, Rs 2,925 crore to SBI, Rs 1,614 crore to Bank of Baroda, Rs 1,244 crore to PNB and Rs 1,228 crore to Indian Overseas Bank. Apart from this, other 22 bank dues are on this company.
This is how the country’s biggest banking fraud case came to the fore?
The bank’s consortium had first filed the complaint on November 8, 2019, on which the CBI had sought some clarifications on March 12, 2020. The consortium of banks filed a fresh complaint in August that year and after more than a year and a half of investigation, the CBI acted on it. The official said the company was sanctioned loans of Rs 2468.51 crore by SBI as well as 28 banks and financial institutions.
When forensic examination was conducted for the period April 2012 to July 2017, it was found that the company committed fraud during this period. This also included misappropriation of money taken as loan from the bank. With the loan money, the officials even bought properties abroad. Apart from this, the loan money was used by the company for other group companies. Sources say that the banks gave this money to the company between 2005 and 2010. But, the fraud came to light after the investigation of E&Y.
NPA was declared in 2013
He said that the forensic audit revealed that between 2012-17, the accused allegedly colluded and carried out illegal activities, including misuse of loans and criminal breach of trust. This is the biggest bank fraud case ever registered by the CBI.
The CBI on Tuesday said that the bank accounts of private shipping firm ABG Shipyard were declared as non-profitable assets (non-profitable assets) according to the State Bank of India in 2013 and this happened after the Congress-led UPA government. was in power.
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The country’s largest investigative agency CBI has registered a case against ABG Shipyard, its former chairman and MD Rishi Agarwal and others. They are accused of defrauding 28 banks to the tune of Rs 22,842 crore.
It is being told as the biggest bank fraud in the country. This amount is much bigger than the Rs 12,000 crore PNB scam of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. Before PNB, fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya had defrauded many public and private banks. This scam was also about Rs 9,000 crore.