The CBI has filed charge sheet against former ABG Shipyard Chairman Rishi Agarwal and others in Rs 23,000 crore bank fraud case.
In September 2022, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had attached assets worth Rs 2747.69 crore in the ABG Shipyard Limited case. The attached assets included Shipyard at Surat and Dahej located in Gujarat, agricultural lands and plots, various commercial and residential premises in Gujarat and Maharashtra and bank accounts owned by ABG Shipyard Ltd, its group companies and other related entities.
PMLA case against ABG
The ED had initiated a money laundering investigation on the basis of the FIR registered on February 07, this year by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Delhi against ABG Shipyard Limited and others.
The investigation by the ED revealed that ABG Shipyard Ltd and its Chairman and Managing Director Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal availed various credit facilities/loans from consortium of Banks led by ICICI Bank, Mumbai on the pretext of meeting its capital requirements and other business expenses but ABG Shipyard Ltd. misappropriated the credit facilities availed from the consortium and diverted the funds for the purposes other than its actual cause in the garb of various loans/advances/investments, etc to various related entities incorporated in India and abroad, that eventually caused monetary loss to the tune of Rs 22,842 crores to the consortium.
The ED has traced movable and immovable assets totaling Rs 2747.69 crore belonging to ABG Shipyard Ltd., its group companies, Bermaco Energy Systems Ltd., Dhananjay Datar, Savita Dhananjay Datar, Krishna Gopal Toshniwal, Viren Ahuja and attached them under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
NPA to the tune of Rs 22,842 crores
The CBI had arrested Rishi Agarwal in an investigation of a case relating to an alleged loss of Rs 22,842 crore to State Bank of India and other Consortium Member banks.
The account of the said company had turned NPA on 30.11.2013. As per Bank's complaint, the NPA was to the tune of Rs 22,842 crores and the majority of the disbursement happened between 2005 and 2013 by a consortium of 28 banks led by ICICI Bank including SBI. The account was restructured under the CDR mechanism on 27.03.2014. However, the operations of the company could not be revived.
Searches were earlier conducted on February 12, this year at 13 locations on the premises of the accused including the company, Directors at Surat, Bharuch, Mumbai, Pune etc which led to recovery of incriminating documents, including books of accounts of the accused borrower company, purchase/ sales details, minutes of meetings of Board, Share registers, various contract files, etc.
(with inputs from PTI)
