A special court here today took cognisance of the CBI charge sheet filed against Kanpur-based Rotomac group chairman Vikram Kothari and his son Rahul Kothari and others in connection with the Rs 3,690-crore alleged loan.
Besides the father-son duo, the court also took cognisance of the offences against two other co-accused while it refused to take cognisance against another co-accused Shashi Kumar Vishwas for want of prosecution sanction.
In its 44 page charge sheet, the CBI had recorded statement of 37 witnesses and also collected 115 pieces of evidence. The investigation is still underway in the case.
Passing the cognisance order, special CBI judge M P Chaudhary fixed June 21 for next hearing of the case.
In the high profile case, the CBI had filed first charge sheet on May 21 against the Kotharis and three other co-accused persons including two officials of the Bank Of Baroda and an official of a private company.
The charge sheet has been forwarded under relevant sections of IPC and also under different sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The CBI has booked the accused for cheating a consortium of seven nationalised banks.
On a complaint by the Bank of Baroda, the FIR in the case was registered by the CBI on February 18.
The CBI had arrested the father and son duo on February 23 from Delhi and since then they have been in jail under judicial custody.
As per the prosecution case in the FIR , since 2008-09, Kothari's companies had taken a loan of Rs 2,919 crore from a consortium led by the Bank of India and comprising the Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Oriental Bank of Commerce.
However, the directors cheated the banks by diverting funds so raised in conspiracy with certain bank officials.
The instances were allegedly found where the credit sanctioned and disbursed to the company was used for purposes other than execution of the claimed export orders.
The probe agency found a case in which the credit sanctioned for an export order purportedly received from Singapore for supply of wheat was diverted to another company named Bargadia Brothers Private Limited.
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