CBI indicts 13 in SIDBI loan scam

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Mumbai on Tuesday filed a charge sheet against 13 suspects including three top officers of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), Shivajinagar branch, for allegedly cheating the bank to the tune of Rs1.64 crore in a loan scam.

The suspects have been charged under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
RN Yadav, then general manager of SIDBI, Shivajinagar branch had lodged the complaint with the CBI, Mumbai on December 9, 2009.

CBI’s deputy superintendent of police (economic offences wing) AK Chanda, through special public prosecutor Anil Kankariya, filed the chargesheet in the court of special judge, SN Sardesai.
The accused are J Raja of Chennai, S Babu of Peniyar, M Anand, G Irudhayaraja, A Ganapathy, K Sokkaih, S Meenakshi, SIDBI’s then deputy general manager Ashoo Tewari, then manager (bill maker) Shassheel Karade, then manager Muthu Kumar, R Arunachalam, Joseph Varghese and Axis Bank’s Salvendra Chakravarthy.

Babu and Anand are out on bail while Muthu has been
declared absconding.

The court admitted the chargesheet and remanded all 10 suspects present in the court into judicial custody,  rejecting their bail applications.

The investigations revealed that Raja and Babu, in connivance with the other accused, had opened an account in Federal Bank and from there the money was withdrawn and transferred to
other accounts.

Muthu resigned in June and was relieved from service on July 31, 2009. Meenakshi, Ganapathy and Sokhaih are related to each other.

As per the chargesheet, Tata Motors Ltd (TML) sanctioned a financial limit to cover its purchases from micro, small and medium enterprises and included Bangalore-based Ranflax India Pvt Ltd (RIPL) as one of the vendors. RIPL supplied flexible tubes to TML.

Based on intimation from TML, SIDBI paid Rs1.51 crore to RIPL through cheques between March 31 and April 29, 2009. To avoid delay, SIDBI in consultation with TML advised the vendors to furnish real time gross settlement (RTGS) details.

On May 25, 2009, the SIDBI received email from RIPL giving RTGS details of their accounts with the Federal Bank at Thiruporur in Tamil Nadu. On receipt of intimation from TML, the SIDBI transferred Rs1.64 crore to this account between May 27 and August 4, 2009.