The CBI has conducted searches at the office of Mumbai-based GTL Infrastructure Ltd (GTIL) after registering an FIR against it and unidentified officials of banks in a loan-fraud case of over Rs 4,000 crore.
The suspect officials of 13 banks are under the agency’s scrutiny for allegedly assigning Rs 3,224 crore dues of the company to an asset reconstruction firm for Rs 1,867 crore without attempting to secure their loans from collateral securities, officials said.
They were part of the negotiations related to the outstanding loans of GTIL, they said. The consortium banks whose officials are under CBI scanner are Union Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Andhra Bank, Bank of India, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, United Bank of India and Dena Bank, they said.
The CBI registered the case after a Preliminary Enquiry in which it emerged that GTIL, promoted by Manoj Tirodkar, was engaged in the “business of passive telecom infrastructure sites capable of hosting multiple service providers”, according to the FIR.
The searches were conducted at the company’s office in Navi Mumbai recently. The company had an outstanding loan of Rs 11,263 crore towards a consortium of 19 banks, they said. The lender banks decided to invoke Strategic Debt Restructuring in 2016, in which out of the total loan of 11,263 crore, a debt of Rs 7,200 crore was converted into equity shares, leaving an outstanding amount of Rs 4,063 crore, which was payable by GTIL to the consortium, according to the said.
The inquiry found large-scale diversion of funds and loan funds were channelised through different vendors that were related parties having common directors and addresses with GTI, officials said.
The lenders were facing unpaid debts to the tune of Rs 4,063 crore and they moved a proposal of selling them to Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company (EARC).