Mumbai: New scam of worth Rs 9.48 crore surfaces at Punjab National Bank

Yet another fraud of Rs 9.48 crore under the nose of the Brady House branch of the Punjab National Bank (PNB) has surfaced wherein the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has accused unknown PNB officials.

The same branch has already been blotted for allegedly helping diamantaire Nirav Modi and Chairman & Managing Director of Gitanjali Group, Mehul Choksi in embezzling Rs 280 crore.

The CBI has registered an FIR against M/s Vision Machines Pvt Ltd (VMPL), Bandra; its directors, Manish Soni and Kuldeep Verma; two guarantors, and unknown officials of PNB.

According to the CBI, the complaint was filed by a Dinesh Bharadwaj, an assistant general manager at Brady House. As per the complaint, the bank had sanctioned credit facilities to VMPL, which is located on SV Road in Bandra (W).

"The accused had also personally guaranteed the credit facilities sanctioned by the bank to the firm. In May 2013, the bank had sanctioned working capital of Rs 4.80 crore and a term loan of Rs 5 crore. The credit facilities were secured by hypothecation of stock and book debits, hypothecation of plant and machinery, mortgage of a land and building in Alwar, Rajasthan and two properties in New Delhi," said a CBI official.

He said that the accused failed to maintain financial discipline as a consequence of which credit facilities were classified as Non-Performing Asset (NPA) in February 2015. "As per the terms and conditions of the loan agreements, the borrower company hold the stocks and other hypothecated assets, plans and machinery in his custody in trust for the creditor bank and they were expected to submit the stock statements at regular intervals to assess drawing power and to maintain required level of stocks and to observe all the terms and conditions contained in the loan documents. However, the borrowers did not maintain the stocks and did not submit stock statement regularly," the official said.

The bank told the CBI that it was revealed that the accused had dishonestly and fraudulently disposed of the hypothecated assets, plant, and machinery with a view to cheating the bank and depriving it of the fruits of the decree/final order once the matter reaches court. In October 2016, the NPA account of the borrower was declared as a fraud account.

"Since the hypothecated assets were charged in favour of the bank, the accused persons held the same in trust and on behalf of the bank. The accused persons have dishonestly and in unauthorised manner disposed of the hypothecated goods without any approval from the bank. Neither did the accused persons deposited the sale proceeds (if the goods were sold) nor did they inform the bank about the reasons of depletion or disposal. Therefore they have dishonestly utilised the proceeds of the primary security and or diverted the funds to cause the unlawful gain to themselves and unlawful loss of Rs 9.48 crore to the bank," the official said.

According to the bank, the accused had filed an application in the Debt Recovery Tribunal in Delhi stating that the hypothecated machines have been sent to a workshop for repairing and for the appointment of local Commissioner for preparing a report.

"But they have not informed the location of the workshop where machines are kept. The bank suspects that the said application was filed with the mala fide intention to stop the criminal activity that is being initiated by the bank. We are probing the case further," said the official.