CBI grills Simbhaoli officials on loan fraud, ED registers case

The CBI on Thursday said it has questioned two officials of Simbhaoli Sugars Ltd in its ongoing investigation into the Rs 109 crore loan default case related to the Oriental Bank of Commerce.

The Enforcement Directorate also registered a case on charges of money laundering against Simbhaoli Sugars Ltd Chairman Gurmit Singh Mann, mill CEO G.S.C. Rao, CFO Sanjay Tapriya, Executive Director Gursimran Kaur Mann and other company officials.

Besides, some more bank officials were also booked for money laundering by the ED.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said it questioned Rao and Gurpal Singh, who is the son-in-law of Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday.

An ED official said the agency carried out searches on Wednesday in Uttar Pradesh's Hapur and Ghaziabad. Some incriminating documents were seized.

The CBI, on February 22, booked Gurpal Singh, and 12 others, including Mann, Rao, Tapriya, Gursimran Kaur Mann and other company officials along with some bank officials in connection with the bank fraud.

According to the CBI officials, a bank loan of Rs 148.60 crore was sanctioned in 2011 to the private company for financing individual, joint liability groups, self-help groups under a tie-up arrangement with a RBI scheme with regard to 5,762 sugarcane farmers supplying produce to the company from January 25 to March 13, 2012.

The accused however allegedly diverted funds for personal use. The account turned a Non-Performing Asset (NPA) on March 31, 2015, and was later declared a fraud by the bank to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on May 13, 2015, involving Rs 97.85 crore.

In addition to the existing NPA as of March 31, 2015, the bank, under multiple banking arrangements, sanctioned another corporate loan of Rs 110 crore to the sugar mill on January 28, 2015, to repay its outstanding loan of Rs 97.85 crore, and adjusted the total liability of Rs 112.9 crore of the company on June 30, 2016, by way of deposit of this new corporate loan.

The corporate loan too turned into a NPA on November 29, 2016.

--IANS

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