The three promoters of Vadodara-based Diamond Power and Infrastructure Ltd(DPIL), who have been charged for defrauding 11 public and private sector banks of over Rs 2,654 crore, were arrested on Wednesday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has said.

The CBI has arrested Suresh Narain Bhatnagar, founder of DPIL, Amit Bhatnagar, Managing Director, and Sumit Bhatnagar, joint MD, in an ongoing investigation.

"The arrested accused will be produced before the Special Judge, CBI Cases, Ahmedabad on Wednesday," the CBI sources said. The trio were on the run after the CBI, on March 26, had registered a case on allegations of cheating the banks to the tune of about Rs 2,654.40 crore by falsification of accounts, creation of false documents, and forgery of records.

After registering a First Information Report (FIR), the CBI had conducted raids at the residences of the promoters, factory and office premises of DPIL. This was followed by the raids by Enforcement Directorate to investigate for money laundering, while the Income-Tax Department too joined in the probe.

The CBI FIR stated that DPIL had fraudulently availed itself of credit facilities from a consortium of 11 banks (both public and private) from 2008, leading to an outstanding debt of Rs 2,654.40 crore as of June 29, 2016.

DPIL accounts in Bank of India and Bank of Baroda were declared NPAs on February 16, 2016, while other banks declared the company's accounts as NPAs from December, 2017.

According to CBI FIR, Bank of India's exposure to DPIL stands at Rs 670.51 crore, Bank of Baroda has an exposure of Rs 348.99 crore, Allahabad Bank 227.96 crore, Dena Bank 117.19 crore, while SBI's exposure stands at Rs 266.37 crore.

Among the private sector lenders, ICICI Bank has an exposure of over Rs 279 crore and Axis Bank has Rs 255.32 crore.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW