Four sent to 10-day CBI custody in Rs 2,240 cr cheating case

Four directors of Surya Vinayak Industries Limited were today sent to 10 days CBI custody by a Delhi court for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 2,240 crore.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Dass sent Sanjay Jain, Rajiv Jain, Rohit Chaudhary and Sanjeev Agarwal, arrested by the probe agency on the complaint of Punjab National Bank (PNB), to custody till April 22.
The accused were arrested by CBI earlier in the day for allegedly using more than 100 shell companies for routing and diversion of bank funds.
Later, the CBI produced them before the court and alleged that they cheated 17 nationalised and four private banks and sought their 14 days custody.

The agency told the court that the accused persons were not cooperating in the recovery of the crime proceeds, the money they made through the crime and invested abroad.
"We have only option to conduct the custodial interrogation of the accused persons and confront them with each other and some documents," the CBI's counsel said.

The accused, however, opposed the CBI plea, saying that they should rather be sent to judicial custody.
Advocate Vijay Aggarwal, appearing for some of the accused persons, said that the FIR was lodged in the matter a few years ago and there was no ground of arrest at this stage.

"The CBI has been investigating the matter for three- and-a-half year. Searches have already been carried out at my client's premises. Some of the accused were permitted to go abroad by the high court on various occasions and now they are seeking 14 days custody," the counsel said.
During the proceedings, the counsel also alleged that the CBI itself was flouting the rules and had produced the accused persons before the court after 24 hours of its arrest and sought that strict action should be taken against the investigating officer of the case.
The CBI had alleged that the 100 shell companies used by the accused for routing and diversion of bank funds had no genuine business transactions.

In its complaint, the PNB had alleged that the company had diverted bank funds to the tune of Rs 2240 crore, which resulted in loss to the consortium.
Over Rs 300 crore of working capital was also allegedly moved to six companies set abroad, the agency said.