Two independent directors quit IDBI days after FIR in Aircel loan case

Ninad Karpe and S Ravi, were named in the FIR filed by the CBI in connection with a Rs 6 bn loan given by the bank to former Aircel promoter C Sivasankaran, his son and companies controlled by him

Two independent directors, Ninad Karpe and S Ravi, have resigned from the board of state-owned IDBI Bank days after CBI filed FIR in connection with Rs 6 billion loan given by the bank to former Aircel promoter C Sivasankaran, his son and companies controlled by him.

Karpe and Ravi cease to be independent directors of IDBI Bank with effect from May 11 and May 12 respectively, an official said.

These directors had informed the board, which took note of their resignations yesterday.

The CBI's FIR had also named many officials including some of the independent directors including these two.

The case pertains to loans of Rs 3.22 billion and Rs 5.23 billion given to the companies of Sivasankaran, who was at the centre of Aircel Maxis probe for alleging that the then telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran had put pressure on him to sell his company to a Malaysian telecom tycoon, a case in which Maran brothers have been discharged by a special court.

The loans later turned non-performing assets or NPAs.

The loan of Rs 3.22 billion was allegedly issued to Finland-based Win Wind Oy (WWO) by IDBI Bank in October 2010 which turned NPA three years later, the CBI has said in its FIR.

CBI has named 15 bank officials who worked at senior levels at IDBI Bank in 2010 and 2014 when loans were sanctioned to the companies controlled by Sivasankaran in its FIR registered on a complaint from the Central Vigilance Commission, they said.

Managing Director and CEO of Indian Bank Kishor Kharat (who was then MD and CEO of IDBI Bank) and his counterpart in Syndicate Bank Melwyn Rego (then Deputy Managing Director in IDBI Bank), along with then Chairman-cum-Managing Director of IDBI Bank M S Raghavan have been named in the FIR.