india

Updated: Apr 24, 2019 19:04 IST

The CBI on Wednesday issued a Look-out Circular against Bhushan Steel CMD Sanjay Singhal, vice chairman Aarti Singhal in a Rs 2,348 crore bank fraud case.

On April 6, the CBI had in a statement said that it had filed a case under the charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy against the company - Bhushan Steel, it’s CMD Sanjay Singhal, Vice Chairman Aarti Singhal, director Ravi Prakash Goyal, full time director Ram Naresh Yadav, three other senior functionaries of the company and unknown government servants.

The agency said Bhushan Steel, through its directors / staff, fraudulently diverted Rs 2,348 crore (approx) from the loan account of Punjab National Bank (Delhi and Chandigarh), Oriental Bank of Commerce (Kolkata), IDBI Bank (Kolkata) and UCO Bank (Kolkata) into the accounts of various companies or shell companies without any obvious purpose and thereby misused the funds.

“It was further alleged that the company availed various loan facilities from 33 banks/financial institutions between 2007 and 2014 to the tune of Rs 47,204 crore (approx.) and defaulted on repayments. Subsequently, lead bank PNB declared the account as NPA (non performing asset) followed by other banks and financial institutions,” a CBI statement said.

“It was also alleged that the accused entered into a criminal conspiracy among themselves and with unknown public servants of banks & others to cheat banks. In furtherance of the said criminal conspiracy, the accused dishonestly and fraudulently diverted huge amount of bank funds through companies/ shell companies/entities etc. and deliberately defaulted in repayment and also claimed inadmissible CENVAT credit etc,” CBI added

When contacted, Bhushan Steel refused to comment on the case.