Six directors of perfume firm booked for bank fraud, premises raided

Raids were conducted on premises on six directors of city-based perfume company, Surya Vinayak Industries Ltd, here on Saturday after the CBI filed a fresh case against them for cheating the Development Bank of Singapore of Rs 122.49 crore between 2007 and 2012, an official said.

Agency sleuths conducted raids at the residential premises of Sanjay Jain, Rajiv Jain, Rohit Choudhary, Sanjeev Agarwal, Rajeev Jain, Kamal Kant Sharma, as well as some other unidentified persons, in connection with this case.

All these six, directors and promoters of Surya Vinayak Industries Ltd and Surya Vinayak Hospitalities Ltd, have been booked under sections of criminal conspiracy and cheating of the Indian Penal Code, and the Prevention of Corruption Act following a complaint by the bank, said a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official.

"They are accused of cheating the bank of Rs 122.49 crore between 2007 and 2012," he added.

The official said the CBI has so far registered six cases against the group's promoters and directors.

He said that directors of the group, which was in the business of manufacturing of perfume compounds and trading of agro commodities, arranged to show bogus sale and purchase of both these items.

"The stock of perfumery claimed by the company was Rs 887 crore. When evaluated by FFDC (Fragrance and Flavour Development Centre), it turned out that the alleged value was Rs 4.83 crore. The accused also allegedly submitted forged and fabricated documents as well as valuable securities to the bank for enhancement of credit limit," the official said.

In April, the CBI arrested Sanjay Jain, Rajiv Jain, Choudhary and Agarwal in connection with ongoing cases relating to cheating a consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 2,240 crore, he said.

Sanjay Jain and Rajiv Jain are the promoters of Surya Vinayak while Choudhary and Agarwal are the other directors of the Delhi-based company.

"They were held on a complaint from the Punjab National Bank (PNB)," the agency official said, adding that all of them are in judicial custody.

The accused allegedly used over a 100 shell companies to launder funds availed through a consortium of banks led by the PNB.

"There was no genuine business transaction between the said firm and shell companies. The said firm also allegedly diverted Rs 376 crore out of the working capital limit obtained from a consortium of banks to six wholly-owned foreign subsidiaries based in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Indonesia, Ghana and China," a CBI statement said.

The company had availed credit limits from the PNB-led consortium to the tune of Rs 2,240 crore and diverted the funds to the foreign subsidiaries in violation of bank guidelines for use of loan amount, sources said.

Sources said that the company had defaulted in loan repayments following which it was declared a wilful defaulter by the banks.

--IANS

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