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Journalism of Courage
Three persons were arrested in a joint operation by the CBI and Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Wednesday for allegedly defrauding a consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 2,654 crore. The three, identified as S N Bhatnagar and his sons Amit and Sumit, are promoters of Vadodara-based Diamond Power Infrastructure Ltd (DPIL). They were held at a hotel in Udaipur last night, officials said. DPIL manufactures electric cables and other electrical equipment. “The CBI had sought our help in nabbing the Bhatnagar trio. Based on a tip-off that they were hiding in a hotel, a joint team of the Gujarat ATS and the CBI conducted a raid in Udaipur in Rajasthan last night and held them,” a senior ATS official.
A complaint against the three promoters was filed two weeks ago. They, however, remained elusive despite probe agencies including the Income Tax Department and Enforcement Directorate conducting raids at DPIL facilities in Vadodara. The DPIL had fraudulently availed credit facilities from a consortium of 11 banks (both public and private) from 2008, leading to outstanding debt of Rs 2,654.40 crore as of June 29, 2016, CBI said. It was declared a non-performing asset in 2016-17.
The company allegedly submitted false stock statements to the lead bank by treating ‘receivables more than 180 days’ (non-current assets) as ‘less than 180 days’ (current assets) to get more drawing power in the cash credit accounts. The CBI alleged that the DPIL extensively utilised cash credit limits for obtaining a large number of letters of credit, and many of them could not be honoured by the company and were thus “forced charged” on the credit limit. Bank of India’s exposure to the company is Rs 670.51 crore, Bank of Baroda’s exposure is Rs 348.99 crore and that of ICICI Bank is Rs 279.46 crore, the CBI FIR said.
