IDBI Bank appoints two independent directors on its board

State-run IDBI Bank said its board has approved appointment of two new independent directors following the resignation of two board members last week.

The board on May 19, 2018, approved the appointment of Samaresh Parida and N Jambunathan as additionald directors, IDBI Bank said in a filing to stock exchanges.

Parida is a consultant while Jambunathan was former Deputy Managing Director of SBI.

Last week, two independent directors Ninad Karpe and S Ravi resigned from the board of state-owned IDBI Bank days after CBI filed an FIR in connection with Rs 600 crore loan given by the bank to former Aircel promoter C Sivasankaran, his son and companies controlled by him.

The CBI's FIR had named the two independent directors and many other officials.

The case pertains to loans of Rs 322 crore and Rs 523 crore given to the companies of Sivasankaran, who was at the centre of Aircel Maxis probe for alleging that then telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran put pressure on him to sell his company to a Malaysian telecom tycoon, a case in which Maran brothers have been discharged by a special court.

The loans later turned non-performing assets or NPAs.

The loan of Rs 322 crore was allegedly issued to Finland-based Win Wind Oy (WWO) by IDBI Bank in October, 2010 which turned NPA three years later, the CBI has said in its FIR.

The CBI has named 15 bank officials who worked at senior levels at IDBI Bank between 2010 and 2014 when loans were sanctioned to the companies controlled by Sivasankaran in its FIR registered on a complaint from the Central Vigilance Commission.

Managing Director and CEO of Indian Bank Kishor Kharat (who was then MD and CEO of IDBI Bank) and his counterpart in Syndicate Bank Melwyn Rego (then Deputy Managing Director in IDBI Bank), along with then Chairman-cum- Managing Director of IDBI Bank M S Raghavan have been named in the FIR.