Mumbai: The CBI has dropped the charges of corruption in the case registered on Rialto Exim Private Ltd one of the group companies of Pushpak Bullion, for cheating Central Bank of India to the tune of ₹142.72 crores. The CBI said that during the probe they did not find any involvement of any of the public servants in the case.
CBI had in July 2022 registered a case against Rialto Exim and its directors Suchit Chandrakant Patel, Manisha Chandrakant Patel and Varsha Mahesh Patel and Dinesh Jani as they obtained credit facilities from Central bank of India but failed to repay the bank causing loss to the tune of ₹142.72 crores.
Bank employees under CBI's radar
CBI also suspected involvement of officials of the bank, the case was also registered against unknown public servants who could have helped the firm obtain credit facility. Thus, the agency had added charges of Prevention of Corruption Act to the case.
One and a half years later, the agency has said that during the probe it did not find the involvement of any public officers in the case. Hence, the agency decided to drop the charges of the Prevention of Corruption Act and proceed against the accused only for the charges of cheating and forgery under the Indian penal Code. The case would now be shifted to the special CBI magistrate court.
Rialto Exim company details
Rialto Exim is one of the group companies of Pushpak Bullion which is promoted by Chandrakant Patel, is engaged in manufacturing, exporting, and trading of gold, diamonds, semi-precious stone, jewelry. Patel’s son and wife are one of the directors of the company which operated from Surat.
BOI sanctioned export credit facilities to Rialto Exim in 2010
In July 2010, the company was sanctioned export credit facilities to the tune of ₹50 crores by the Bank of India, which were bifurcated in the year 2012 to export credit of ₹25 crore / cash credit of ₹25 crores, gold metal loan of ₹25 crores.
In March 2012, the company approached Central Bank of India, to take over Bank of India’s limit and sanction credit facilities of ₹100 crores. The bank had extended the credit facilities to the extend of ₹101 crores without considering the take over from Central bank of India which is now Bank of India. In June 2020, the company was declared fraud and the case was registered with CBI.
