Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s (pictured above) son-in-law is among several top officials of a sugar refinery named by the Central Bureau of Investigation in a bank loan default case, NDTV reported.
The agency has filed a case against the Ghaziabad-based Simbhaoli Sugars Limited on Sunday for allegedly cheating the Oriental Bank of Commerce of Rs 109 crore. The CBI has named at least 13 people in its First Information Report, The Indian Express reported, including the company’s chairperson Gurmit Singh Mann and Deputy Managing Director Gurpal Singh, who is also the chief minister’s son-in-law.
The agency also conducted searches at several properties associated with Simbhaoli Sugars, one of the country’s largest sugar refineries, in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
According to the CBI, the bank gave Simbhaoli Sugars Limited a Rs 148-crore loan to finance 5,200 sugarcane farmers in 2011. The company got the money between January and March 2012, but it never reached the farmers, the CBI said. It was instead, allegedly diverted to a company account.
The account was declared a non-performing asset in March 2015, and the bank said in June 2015 that the company had defrauded it of Rs 97.85 crore.
However, just months earlier, the bank granted the company another loan of Rs 110 crore under a deal to pay back the earlier loan. This too, was declared a non-performing asset in November 2016.
The development comes days after the CBI registered a case against diamond exporting company Dwarka Das Seth International Private Limited and its directors for an alleged fraud of Rs 389.85 crore. The CBI is also investigating allegations against billionaire jewellery designers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi of cheating the Punjab National Bank of Rs 11,380 crore.
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