CBI raids in 16 states over bank frauds worth around Rs 7K crore

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday carried out raids at over 190 locations in 16 states after registering 42 cases related to bank frauds involving funds worth around Rs 7,000 crore, officials familiar with the development said.

CBI spokesperson Nitin Wakankar said, “It was an operation against bank fraudsters.”

The agency said the cases are unrelated.

Another CBI officer, who didn’t wish to be named, said, “Around 1,000 officers from almost all our units and branches were drawn for these raids.”

In at least four cases, the funds siphoned are pegged at over Rs 1000 crore, the agency said.

Maximum searches were reported from Maharashtra, where CBI teams raided 58 locations, followed by Punjab’s 32 locations. In Delhi, 12 locations were searched. Seventeen places were searched in Tamil Nadu and MP each, 15 in UP, five in Andhra Pradesh, two in Chandigarh, four each in Kerala, Telangana and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, five each in Gujarat and Haryana, six in Karnataka and two each in Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

The exercise, launched early in the morning, was carried out throughout the day, with CBI teams knocking the doors of the accused to collect evidence and question them.

Among major cases, CBI has booked promoters and directors of a company for allegedly cheating the State Bank of India, Bhopal, by falsifying records to avail credit facilities of Rs 6000 crore.

The company involved in bulk trading of agro commodities defaulted on payments causing a loss of Rs1,266 crore to the bank, officials said. A separate case has been registered against another company for availing credit facilities to the tune of Rs1290 crore on forged documents.

A Chennai-based company and its directors were named in a first information report (FIR) for allegedly causing a loss of Rs 1,083 crore to a consortium of 12 banks led by IDBI, the agency said.

They allegedly utilised credit facilities, books of accounts and diverted loan funds to different accounts.