The CBI on Friday arrested two senior retired officers of Bank of India in connection with alleged loan fraud of Rs 2,654 crore by Vadodara-based Diamond Power Infrastructure ltd. (DPIl). Both the arrested accused will be produced on Saturday before the trial court, Ahmedabad.
According to CBI, VV Agnihotri and PK Shrivastava, retired GM and DGM respectively, had allegedly granted undue favours to the company in granting credit limits. The promoters of the company were arrested in April this year.
CBI has alleged that the then AGM (who subsequently retired as GM) and the then DGM (retired as DGM), both posted in Zonal office, Bank of India, Vadodara (Gujarat) in the year 2007-08 had shown undue favour in the sanction of the working capital limits to a Vadodara- based private firm in the year 2008.
It was also alleged that both these officials were responsible for the processing and recommending the working capital limits to the tune of Rs 53.40 crore (approx.) in violation of the guidelines of the bank. They were also allegedly responsible for disbursal of the limits without ensuring the compliance of the conditions stipulated in the sanction.
The CBI in an FIR had said that the DPIl, which manufactures electric cables and equipment, is promoted by Suresh Narain Bhatnagar and his sons Amit Bhatnagar and Sumit Bhatnagar, who are also the directors of the firm. The loan, it said, was declared a non-performing asset in 2016-17.
It was further alleged that the DPIl through its management, had fraudulently availed Credit Facilities from a Consortium of 11 Banks (Public Sector and Private Sector) since 2008, with an outstanding amount of Rs. 2654.40 crore as on June 29, .2016. The banks include Bank of India; Bank of Baroda; ICICI Bank; Allahabad Bank; Axis Bank; Dena Bank; SBI; IOB; IFCI; EXIM bank of India & Corporation Bank and other financial institutions.
The company and its directors managed to get the term loans and credit facilities, in spite of the fact that they were named in the Reserve Bank of India’s defaulters list.