CBI books YSR Congress' Rama Krishna Raju in Rs 947.71 cr loan fraud case

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked Ind-Barath Power Madras Ltd, its Chairman and Managing Director K Raghu Rama Krishna Raju, and Madhusudhana Reddy, a director at Ind-Barath Power (Madras) Ltd for an alleged loss of Rs 947.71 crores to a consortium of lenders. The disputed amount was raised from a consortium led by Power Finance Corporation Limited (PFC), and other two lenders, Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC) and India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL), for setting up a thermal power plant in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu.

K Raghu Rama Krishna Raju is also a Member of Parliament in the 17th Lok Sabha from Narasapuram constituency, Andhra Pradesh. He won the 2019 Indian general election as a YSR Congress Party candidate.

The CBI has named 16 accused in its chargesheet filed in connection with this case. In addition to Ind-Barath, Raju, and Reddy, 8 sister companies of the group have also been named. Sokeo Power, a contractor company for Ind-Barath and its managing director Y. Nagarjuna Rao is named in the chargesheet. The names of Chartered Accountants M. Sreenivasulu Reddy and Pravin Kumar Jabad also figure in the CBI chargesheet. C Venu, an official of Ind-Barath Group companies is also an accused.

CBI alleges that Ind-Barath neither completed the project, nor complied with the terms and conditions of loan agreements. “The accused including the borrower company allegedly transferred/diverted the disbursed project funds to create fixed deposits (FDs) with Bank of India and UCO Bank and to pay advances to contractors. Subsequently, the accused allegedly availed loans against these fixed deposits and advances paid to contractors for the group companies and later due to non-repayment of loan amount, the said FDs were adjusted against the loan accounts, leading to loss to the lenders,” the CBI said.