MUMBAI | NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday arrested at least 8 people, including former IDBI Bank chairman Yogesh Agarwal and former chief financial officer of now defunct Kingfisher Airlines A Raghunathan, in what appears to be an accelerated effort by government agencies to recover the nearly Rs 9,000 crore that the billionaire Vijay Mallya owes lenders.The CBI arrests are in connection with the allegedly fraudulent loan transaction of Rs 950 crore between the company and the bank which the investigative agency believes was in contravention of established industry practices.The arrests follow the questioning of these officials by CBI sleuths in Bengaluru and Mumbai.The IDBI Bank officials arrested include former deputy MD OV Bundellu, former ED SKV Srinivasan and former GM RS Sridhar.Kingfisher Airlines executives in the net include former AVP Shailesh Porkar, former DGM-finance Amit Nadkarni and former senior manager-accounts AC Shah.The arrests may be the worst setback for Mallya who has been avoiding interrogation or arrest by Indian authorities after he shifted base to London. Indian banks that are stuck with the bad loans have been seeking his arrest and extradition.The action against former KFA officials comes days after the Bengaluru Debt Recovery Tribunal on January 19 ordered the SBI led bank consortium to start the process of recovering Rs 6,203 crore at an annual interest rate of 11.5% from Mallya and his companies.In the case involving IDBI Bank, CBI was probing the loan sanctioned to KFA based on its brand value instead of credit rating. It is contended that had the bank followed the credit rating principles, it would not have been able to sanction the loan. CBI believes that the company did not use the funds for the intended purpose and instead diverted them, which is a crime.