Rs 6.21-billion fraud: CBI books former UCO Bank CMD Arun Kaul, others

The CBI has booked former chairman-cum-managing director of UCO Bank Arun Kaul and others in connection with an alleged Rs 6.21 billion loan fraud which has caused a loss of over Rs 7.37 billion to the bank, officials said on Saturday.

The agency carried out searches at 10 locations today, they said here.

Besides Kaul, the CBI booked Era Engineering Infra India Ltd. (EEIL), its CMD Hem Singh Bharana, two chartered accountants -- Pankaj Jain and Vandna Sharda -- and Pawan Bansal of Altius Finserve Pvt. Ltd. among others, they said.

It is alleged that the accused persons in pursuance of a criminal conspiracy defrauded the UCO Bank to the tune of about Rs 6.21 billion by diversion and siphoning of the bank loans, they said.

Kaul, who was the CMD of a Kolkata-based bank between 2010 and 2015, allegedly facilitated the accused company in obtaining the loan, they said.

The loan was secured by producing false end-use certificates issued by the chartered accountant and by fabricating business data. The loan was not utilized for the sanctioned purpose, the CBI alleged.

"Searches are being conducted at 10 places (8 in Delhi and 2 in Mumbai) including the office premises of the companies, chartered accountants and the residence of the aforesaid accused persons," the CBI spokesperson said.

In its complaint, now part of the CBI FIR, the bank alleged that two loans were issued to the company in 2010 -- Rs 2 billion in March and Rs 4.5 billion in October.

The Rs 2 billion loan was issued for repayment of high cost debt to Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and IFCI. It was found that the company did not utilize the amount for the purpose for which it was disbursed and diverted the funds.

"No amount was used to repay the dues of Central Bank of India and Punjab National Bank while only Rs 5.9 million were repaid towards dues of IFCI while purpose of the loan was to repay the dues of these banks," it said.

Chartered accountant Pankaj Jain dishonestly and fraudulently did not mention the details of utilisation of term loan in the end-use certificate.

In the case of the Rs 4.5 billion loan, too, the funds were utilised for purposes other than stipulated in the sanction and the end-use certificates given by the chartered account were intentionally ambiguous and against the fact, it alleged.

"The account was declared NPA as on July 7, 2013 by the bank and the present balance as on December 31, 2017 is Rs 7.38 billion," it alleged.