The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday conducted searches at eight locations on the official and residential premises of Shakti Bhog Foods limited based in Delhi, which led to recovery of incriminating documents in the bank fraud case registered against it on December 31.
According to the FIR, the registered office address of the company is in Pearls Business Park at Netaji Subhash Place in Delhi.
The CBI had registered the case on a complaint from the State Bank of India against Shakti Bhog Foods limited for causing an alleged loss of approximately Rs 3269.42 crore to the SBI and other consortium member banks. The loss to member banks has been estimated as Rs 1903.25 crore to SBI bank; Rs 51.90 crore to Bank of Baroda; Rs 51.89 crore to Allahabad bank; Rs 47.50 crore to Indian Overseas Bank; Rs 415. 94 crore to Corporation Bank; Rs 228.62 crore to Punjab National Bank; Rs 268.52 crore to Standard Chartered Bank; Rs 128.34 crore to ICICI Bank and Rs 62.34 crore to Lakhsmi Vilas Bank.
Five accused named in the FIR are M/S Shakti Bhog Foods Ltd, Kewal Krishan Kumar, who is the managing director and guarantor; Siddharth Kumar, director and guarantor; Sunanda Kumar, director and guarantor besides unknown public servants and others.
According to the CBI FIR, the offence was committed between 2013 and 2017. The SBI said in its complaint that the account had been migrated to the bank in September 2017. However , the process of identifying the account as fraud took sometime as it not only involved a forensic audit report and detailed discussion among the consortium members, but also the non-cooperative attitude of the promoter. Meanwhile, given the large number of consortium member banks, it took sometime to gather facts and data about the fraudulent transactions of the account.
The CBI alleged that the accused persons had falsified the accounts, forged documents and used these forged and fabricated documents to siphon off the funds. The bank is not suspecting involvement of its staff or any common conspirator so far .
The CBI's FIR also has detailed the growth of the company.
In 2010, the company had diversified into areas of rice manufacturing and over the years established itself as a basmati rice manufacturer. In the past decade, the company increased its product portfolio in the food processing sector spreading across wheat, rice, flour, biscuits, dalia, cookies, gram flour, maida, tea biscuits, besan and so on. This helped the company grow organically and its turnover of Rs 1,411.87 crores in financial year of 2008 rose to around Rs 6,000 crore by financial year 2014. However, the accounts with an outstanding of Rs 2,016.60 crores turned into Non Performing Asset on March 31, 2015, said the FIR.
In the audited statement for the financial year 2015-16, it is mentioned in the notes to account that the inventory costing Rs 3035.52 crore got damaged due to pest and were sold at substantial low price. However, in the Stock and Receivable Audit conducted between January 16 and February 29, 2016 , for the quarter ending September 2015, it was noted that the stock was Rs 3,537.55 crore . The stock auditor stated that warehouses were fully stocked and none of the inventory was identified as slow moving or obsolete. The auditor also pointed out that SBFL had taken an insurance policy to cover risk of fire, earthquake and special perils to the extent of Rs 3,335.10 crores.
