Mumbai: CBI books unnamed firm, directors in ₹189 crore fraud case

Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case of criminal conspiracy, cheating, and criminal misconduct against a Mumbai-based IT infrastructure company for allegedly causing wrongful loss of Rs189.05 crore to a consortium of banks. The bank in its complaint with the CBI has alleged that the company and its directors, with an ulterior motive, diverted, misutilised credit facilities sanctioned by the lenders and knowingly cheated the bank with fraudulent intention for wrongful gain to themselves and wrongful loss to the bank.

Complaint was received by CBI in November 2021

According to the CBI, a written complaint was received on November 26, 2021, from P Santosh, chief general manager, Canara Bank, Bandra Kurla Complex, alleging that the company, which provides comprehensive infrastructure assessment and consulting, implementation of migration, project and programme management, security and support services, was sanctioned term loan of Rs189.5 crore for BSNL Hotspot Project for setting up, owning and operating Wi-Fi hotspots at public places through BSNL POP on revenue share basis, from a consortium of banks, including e-Syndicate Bank (now Canara Bank), Bank of Maharashtra and e-Vijaya Bank (now Bank of Baroda).

Borrower caused wrongful loss of Rs 189.05 crore

“Out of the total disbursal of Rs 189.35 crore meant for the purpose of incurring capex for BSNL HotSpot Project, the company utilised funds amounting to Rs 151.83 crore and diverted for other purposes such as trading purchases like payment to other vendors and potential non-genuine asset purchase transactions. The company and accused persons during the period from the year 2016 to 2018 were party to a criminal conspiracy to cheat consortium of banks and in pursuance, to the said criminal conspiracy the accused person availed term loan of Rs189.50 crores,” a CBI official said.

As per the bank’s complaint, the account of the borrower was classified as NPA in 2017 and thereby caused wrongful loss of Rs 189.05 crore (principal amount) to the consortium and corresponding wrongful gain to accused borrower company and others.