The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against 15 former and serving senior officials of IDBI Bank, 11 companies and their directors, and 24 others, including Aircel founder C Sivasankaran, for allegedly cheating the bank out of Rs 600 crore, The Hindu reported. The agency also reportedly conducted searches at 50 locations in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Faridabad, Gandhi Nagar, Bengaluru, Belagavi, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Pune.
The CBI alleged that former senior bank officials and others committed fraud through the loan accounts of Axcel Sunshine Limited, which has its office in British Virgin Islands, and the Finland-based Win Wind Oy. IDBI Bank reportedly sanctioned a Rs 322-crore loan to Win Wind Oy in October 2010. The Finnish company applied for bankruptcy in October 2013. The amount was declared a non-performing asset. A year later, the bank sanctioned a loan of Rs 523 crore to Axcel Sunshine, an associate of the Siva Group. Sivasankaran, a citizen of Seychelles, is the chairperson of Siva Group.
A subsidiary of the group called Siva Investments is reportedly a holding company of Win Wind Oy, and the money loaned to Axcel Sunshine was allegedly used to repay loans of other group companies, including Win Wind Oy, the CBI alleged. The agency said this was a flagrant violation of the Reserve Bank of India’s regulatory guidelines on foreign investments in India.
The former Chief Managing Director of IDBI Bank, Kishor Kharat, who at present heads Indian Bank, and Syndicate Bank’s Chief Executive Officer Melwyn Rego have also been named in the case, IANS reported.
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