Mumbai: Cops book private firm, its directors in Rs 39 crore bank loan cheating case

A leading private bank has lodged a complaint with the police against a private company and its directors for allegedly cheating and causing a wrongful loss of Rs 39.64 crore to the bank.

According to the Dadar police, the complainant in the case is the chief vigilance officer of the bank. In June last year, a senior bank official had brought it to the notice of the bank that a South-Mumbai based company had procured a loan from the bank by allegedly concealing their actual financial condition and submitting forged documents, at the bank's office situated at Senapati Bapat Marg in Dadar.

The bank in its complaint had claimed that the company since September 2019 had started defaulting on repayment of the loan and the said account was classified as Red Flagged Account and the outstanding amount to be paid to the bank at that time was Rs 39.64 crore. The said account was then classified as NPA in September 2019, the FIR stated.

As per the FIR, the bank had then got a forensic audit of the said account done and in June 2020, the bank had raised a complaint against the said company with the Reserve Bank of India.

On the complaint of the bank, the police have registered a case under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) 406 (Punishment for criminal breach of trust), 409 (Criminal breach of trust by a public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (punishment for forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc) and 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.

"We have just received the complaint and would be checking all the loan documents and would also record statements of the people named in the FIR by the bank. It is a complex case and the bank in its complaint has also mentioned about five companies that the bank claimed were shell companies and had business dealings with the borrowing company. We would also be investigating the role of these companies during the probe," said a police officer.