Indian Overseas Bank chases large defaulters to recover INR 30,861 crore
Among the 11 PSU banks with a total recovery from large defaulters crossing INR 29 lakh crore, Indian Overseas Bank’s (IOB) share is less when compared to the dues of others. As per the rating agency TransUnion CIBIL, up to January 2026, IOB has filed 1,029 suits to recover INR 30,861 crore dues from large defaulters.
Indian Bank is the only PSU bank that has not yet released its large defaulters list to the rating agencies for the past year. All other banks are updating their data on a monthly basis with TransUnion CIBIL.
IOB’s biggest defaulter is Kanpur-based Frost Infrastructure and Engineering, with standing loans at INR 2,371 crore. This company’s owner, Rajesh Bothra, settled in Singapore, was arrested by CBI in November 2025, when he landed in Delhi. CBI arrested him on the Punjab National Bank’s complaint of siphoning of loans abroad through fake shipping bills.
Apart from a series of shell firms, Bothra has three companies, namely Frost Infrastructure & Energy Ltd, Frost International Ltd, and Frost Global Ltd. These firms got around INR 5,000 crore from many banks, including the State Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Union Bank of India, and Bank of India.
The second biggest defaulter of IOB is another Kanpur-based company, Rotomac Global, with dues of INR 2,252 crore. The leading pen and pencil manufacturing company got into the radar of agencies after Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi’s bank loan frauds came out in the public domain.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has already attached properties worth INR 500 crore. Rotomac promoted Vikram Kothari, and Rahul Kothari has taken loans from many banks, and the dues are more than INR 7,500 crore.
Tamil Nadu’s Namakkal-based Shubhasri Bio Energies is the third largest defaulter of IOB, with dues of INR 2.066 crore. Bankers’ connivance is visible in splitting loans into small amounts. This firm got 24 loans divided into small equal amounts. This loan splitting will lead to a series of civil recovery suits in courts.
Era Group’s Era Infra Engineering is the fourth largest defaulter of IOB with dues of INR 1,918 crore. Hem Singh Bharana, a promoter of a real estate companies, has plundered many PSU banks. This company is the largest defaulter of Union Bank with more than INR 75,000 crore in dues.
ED has found that Bharana has diverted the bank loans to the British Virgin Islands and is facing more than 1,000 cases for cheating home buyers.
Collapsed infrastructure funding company IL and FS’s dues are INR 1,041 crores, and a Delhi-based trading company Emmson International owes INR 1,068 crore to IOB.
Other notable reporters in the range of INR 600 crore to INR 1,000 crore are Punj Lloyd (INR 740 crore), JMD Oil (INR 667 crore), IVRCL (INR 623 crore) and Naresh Goyal’s grounded company Jet Airways. Videocon, which plundered many banks with 1000s of crores, has shown mercy to Indian Overseas Bank by taking only INR 481 crore.
