Guj court names banks as accused in multi-crore scam

Ramsagar Parihar,a member of the Communist Party of India,had filed a case in 2002 against the administrators of Maradia Chemicals Limited alleging that they had siphoned off a substantial amount of money from public sector banks. The company had taken a loan of around Rs 526 crores from different nationalised banks and did not pay back about Rs 326 crores. Parihar had also demanded that the banks and their officials be booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code as they had allegedly aided and abetted the commission of offence. The court had ordered the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to investigate the complaint.

Issuing the order Judge P B Desai observed: “There is sufficient material to show that the concerned banks have,prima facie,participated in giving financial assistance to the principal perpetrator and the prima facie commission of an offence is already held to have taken place in terms of various ordered passed by this Court from time to time. In the event,I am of the opinion that such banks are required to be brought on record for the present proceedings as accused and therefore,summons are required to be issued to each of the concerned banks.”