3 min readMay 20, 2023 04:13 AM IST
First published on: May 20, 2023 at 04:13 AM IST
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police has lodged an FIR against former chairman and former managing director and other senior functionaries of Infrastructure IL & FS Ltd (NBFC) in a Rs 661-crore cheating case. The accused lender allegedly violated terms of agreement pertaining to mortgaged properties of the complainant company in a loan matter and caused wrongful loss to them.
A senior police officer confirmed the development to The Indian Express.
The police have booked Ravi Parthasarthi, former chairman of IL&FS, and Ramesh Bawa, former CEO of IL&FS, under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant, or banker, or merchant or agent) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and 66C (identity theft) and 66D (personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
The police has filed an FIR on the complaint of Nikhil Prataprai Gandhi, 63, chairman of SKIL Infrastructure Ltd, a leading Infrastructure development company.
As per Gandhi’s police complaint, during March 2015 and September 2018, the accused persons, while working as financial service providers at IL&FS, in order to show company’s financial wellbeing in the annual balance sheet, the accused allegedly sold off shares of SKIL Infrastructure Ltd, which were kept mortgaged with them, at an inappropriate time.
It had been decided between the complainant and the accused NBFC, that the money lender would sell off the (mortgaged) shares of the complainant company, and recover the loan sanctioned to them. But the accused company knowingly did not sell the shares on time, and later the value of the said shares had declined. Subsequently, the complainant could not repay the loan in full and now must bear the additonal interest and charge, an EOW source said.
“The accused company allegedly violated the terms and conditions of the loan agreement, and misused the properties (shares) of SKIL Infrastructure, selling them as per their interest which resulted in additional charge on SKIL Infrastructure, thus causing them a wrongful loss to the tune of Rs 661 crore,” said a senior EOW officer. The accused former chairman Parthasarthi died in April 2022 after a prolonged illness, while Bawa was earlier arrested by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in a case related to massive loan defaults. The present case was first filed at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) police station on Thursday and later handed over to the banking unit of EOW. “We will investigate thoroughly and will take Bawa into custody whenever needed,” the EOW officer said.
The EOW are currently scrutinising the loan account documents of the complainant company with the accused company. If need arises, investigators may go for an forensic audit of the accused NBFC to get a clear picture of the alleged financial irregularities, another EOW source said.
The police has filed an FIR on the complaint of Nikhil Prataprai Gandhi, 63, chairman of SKIL Infrastructure Ltd, a leading Infrastructure development company. (Express PHOTO
) 
Share
