CBI books Mumbai-based ground handling company for cheating SBI nearly Rs 70 crore

The CBI has booked the CMD and the CEO of Mumbai-based ground handling company Livewel Air Team Pvt Ltd for allegedly cheating State Bank of India to the tune of Rs 70 crore by submitting forged documents for availing loans which remained unpaid, officials said on Wednesday.

The CBI in its FIR named Chairman and Managing Director Manek Daver and Chief Executive Officer Burzin Daver besides the company as accused.

The agency has alleged that between 2015 and 2017, the company and its directors "hatched a criminal conspiracy" to commit forgery and to cheat the State Bank of India.

The website of the agency claims it has footprints in five countries -- the UK, the UAE, Malaysia and Singapore besides India. It also claimed to be the first company for ground handling of biggest Airbus aircraft A380 at Terminal 3 of Delhi Airport in 2010.

The CBI has alleged that they created forged documents and signatures of an auditor on financial statements submitted to the Bank for availing credit facilities, the FIR said.

Based on these forged documents, the company "induced the bank" to avail credit facilities to the tune of Rs 61 crore during the period.

The bank had sanctioned the credit limit to meet the fund requirement for business activities which included providing engineering and infrastructure facilities for narrow-bodied aircraft, cabin interior refurbishment services for commercial airlines among others, the FIR said.

The SBI appointed an auditor to carry out a stock audit of the company who found "glaring irregularities and instances of fraud".

The company had shown on Sanjay Jha and Associates as its statutory auditor and used financial statements for the year 2015-16 to avail credit limits from the SBI.

"However, on January 20, 2017, the auditor informed the bank that they are not the statutory auditor of LATPL, and they had not signed the financial statement. The said financial statement was submitted by the borrower with the bank for renewal of credit facilities and drawing money from the sanctioned limits," the SBI complaint, now part of the FIR, said.