State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Dinesh Kumar Khara on Wednesday termed the recent arrest of former SBI chairman Pratip Chaudhari, arrested on charges of fraudulently selling hotels, as extremely unfortunate. Addressing the media after the announcement of the quarterly results of the bank, Khara said that many people from the banking community, including former heads of the bank, have made their reactions public.
Khara said it appeared that he was not given an opportunity of being heard before issuing the arrest warrant. Chaudhary was arrested by Jaisalmer Police on Sunday in a case related to Gaudavan Group and Alchemist ARC.
A local court in Jaisalmer sent Pratip Chaudhary to judicial custody for 14 days on Monday. Choudhary was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate here on Monday where he remanded him to 14-day judicial custody, rejecting the bail plea.
Jaisalmer Sadar SHO Karan Singh said that we produced former SBI chairman Pratip Chaudhary in the court from where the court sent him to judicial custody. A case was registered against Choudhary in 2015 in a loan settlement case for confiscation of a prominent private hotel property and fraudulently selling it at throwaway prices.
A case of cheating was registered against Chaudhary at Jaisalmer Sadar police station. Police said that Chaudhary had become a director on the board of the company that had bought the hotel. Meanwhile, SBI has clarified in a statement that it appears that the court has not been properly informed on the sequence of events.
The bank said that SBI was not a party to the matter, there was no opportunity of hearing SBI’s side under this action. The Bank reiterated that all proper procedures were followed while making the said sale. The statement added that the bank has already offered its cooperation to law enforcement and judicial authorities and will provide all further information if demanded.
State Bank of India said in its statement that in 2007, the Garh Rajwada project in Jaisalmer was financed by SBI. The project could not be completed in the next three years as well as the death of the main promoter in April 2010. The country’s largest bank said that the account had come under the NPA category in June 2010.
SBI said that in January 2014, ARC was allowed to sell the property after the recovery failed. This process was completed in March 2014. It is now learned that the borrower had lodged an FIR with the state police against selling the property to ARC. The bank said that in this case all the directors of ARC Group have been named, including Pratip Chaudhary.
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