The CBI carried out searches on Thursday at the premises of Punjab Basmati Rice Limited and its directors, booked for allegedly cheating the Canara Bank to the tune of Rs 174.89 crore, officials said. Reportedly, Manjit Singh Makhni has moved to Canada after the alleged fraud.
The searches took place at the premises of the company office and accused directors Kulwinder Singh Makhani, Jasmeet Kaur and Manjeet Singh Makhani in Punjab's Amritsar, they said. "It was alleged in the complaint that the accused had cheated the Canara Bank-led consortium comprising Andhra Bank, Union Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce, IDBI Bank, UCO Bank to the tune of Rs 350.84 crore (including Rs 174.89 crore to the Canara Bank) by disposing off the stock and prime security without any prior intimation or approval from the consortium lender banks," CBI Spokesperson R.K. Gaur said.
In the First Information Report, the agency gave a break-up of the dues: "Rs 175 crore with Canara Bank, 53 crore Andhra Bank, 44 crore with UBI, 25 crore with OBC, 14 crore with IDBI and 41 crore with UCO Bank", NDTV reported.
Canara Bank alleged that the firm availed credit facilities from it since 2003. "As the company defaulted in the repayment of principle debt and installments, the account was classified as NPA by Canara bank on 25.04.2018; Andhra Bank on 31.03.2018; OBC on 27.6.2018; IDBI on 31.3.2018; UBI on 30.4.2018 and UCO bank on 31.3.2018," the agency's FIR read.
Reportedly, Canara Bank reported the fraud to the RBI in March last year. While the bank was advised to file the complaint with CBI in March last year, it filed the complaint with the central agency in June this year.
"It is a purely civil dispute and the company has already moved NCLT for initiation of insolvency process and the company is under liquidation. I can't comment anything about this criminal proceedings initiated by CBI," Jyoti Sareen, counsel for Kulwinder Singh Makhni, was quoted by NDTV.
(With PTI inputs)
