CBI grills Simbhaoli Sugars' CMD in Rs 109-cr bank fraud case

The CBI on Tuesday grilled the CMD of Simbhaoli Sugars Ltd in its ongoing investigation into a Rs 109-crore loan default case involving the Oriental Bank of Commerce.

"We have grilled CMD Simran Kaur Mann of the Simbhaoli Sugars Ltd today (Tuesday)," a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official said here.

On Thursday, the agency had questioned the company's CEO G.S.C. Rao.

The CBI, on February 22, booked Chairman Gurmit Singh Mann, Rao, CFO Sanjay Tapriya, Executive Director Gursimran Kaur Mann and other company officials in connection with the bank fraud.

According to CBI officials, a bank loan of Rs 148.60 crore was sanctioned in 2011 to the private company for financing individuals, joint liability groups and 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 finally the bank declared it a fraud 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 an NPA on November 29, 2016.

The Enforcement Directorate has also registered a case on charges of money laundering against Simbhaoli Sugars Ltd's Gurpal Singh, and 12 others, including Mann, Rao, Tapriya, Gursimran Kaur Mann and other company officials along with some bank officials.

--IANS

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