New Delhi : The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has received a complaint against Larsen & Toubro (L&T) alleging “thousands of crores” of financial irregularities, including money laundering and tax evasion, a charge that the infrastructure giant rubbished as “baseless”.
Acting on the complaint received, SFIO’s Mumbai regional office has written to the head-office here stating that it “is a fit case to be investigated” as it will “help in unearthing wrong doings of L&T group, in terms of misappropriation of money, money laundering and tax evasion”. In the complaint, Rajya Sabha MP Kahkashan Perween has alleged that loans worth Rs 8,000 crore given to the group for road projects face serious threat of turning into NPAs. It alleged irregularities in two projects – L&T Halol Shamlaji Tollway (L&T Halol) and L&T Chennai Tada.
L&T and its arms, which are engaged in highway projects have been termed as “habitual defaulters” by NHAI, which is likely to have a severe negative impact on loans worth Rs 8,000 crore given by various banks to the group, as per the complaint by the MP. L&T, however, dismissed the allegations as “baseless and without any merit”, and said it has no information about any investigation.
“Efforts by public sector banks to bail out L&T Halol Shamlaji Tollway (L&T Halol) under the guise of debt-restructuring schemes will only benefit unscrupulous promoters i.e., L&T at the cost of banks, financial institutions and public at large,” the complaint alleged.
Besides, it added that loan accounts of Chennai Tada have already turned NPAs since Sept 2015 and recovery of the same is under serious threat. “L&T and its group firms be black listed and the banks and public financial institutions be prohibited from granting any further loans to them considering their record of frittering away public money,” it said.
