S’pore rejects CBI plea in Indian Bank case

Official sources said that the reason given for rejecting the request was that Singapore’s laws “do not permit disclosure of these accounts and overseas branches of Indian banks are governed by the laws of the particular country.” The CBI has now renewed its request for assistance through the Ministry of External Affairs.

“Details of bank accounts of the Indian Bank in Singapore would have helped us identify the companies of MVR to which loans were given and to decide whether the loans were declared bad because of connivance of the bank officials or due to market reasons,” a senior official said. It would also have clarified whether he was using forged bills to obtain loans from the bank.

Detailing the modus operandi of the MVR group, against whom cases worth Rs 350 crore have been registered, sources said that the company was basically over-invoicing its imports largely from Nigeria and claiming loan for a higher price.

The agency has also sent letters rogatory to Germany and Rotterdam for investigation about companies which had links with the MVR group and to find whether money from the Indian Bank was also diverted to these companies.

According to sources, MVR was exporting to four companies in Rotterdam and one of the accounts is suspected to be that of the LTTE. However, sources say, there is no concrete proof of the MVR money going to the LTTE account.

The CBI has also registered new criminal cases against 11 companies, taking the total number of cases registered in the scam to twenty three. “Most of these are satellite companies of the MVR group such as Wellstores, Sanjeeva Packaging, Abhinav Constructions and loans given to these companies had immediately gone back to the main MVR Exports company. Apart from these companies, three cases involving Powermex Steel Company of Orissa are in the final stages of investigation,” the official said.