The Anti-Corruption Bureau has registered a case against the J&K Bank management and Anish Mohd Rawther, the director of Rawther Spices Private Limited.

The case has been registered in a bank-loan fraud worth ₹350 crore, and searches have been conducted in Bengaluru, an ACB statement said. The ACB said that the management at the corporate headquarters/zonal office, Bengaluru, and officers/officials of J&K Bank, Infantry Road Branch, Bengaluru, had given loans worth crores of rupees to Rawther Spices by passing all norms and procedures.

During the course of verification, it came to the fore that Rawther Spices was established in 1985 and was dealing in import and export of spices and coffee. In 2002, the company was sanctioned a loan of ₹2 crore against collateral security of three properties valued at ₹10 crore by J&K Bank, the ACB said. “In the subsequent years from 2012, the bank increased the limits of different types of loans enormously, which rose up to ₹308.13 crore in 2015 against increased mortgage/security value to ₹147.43 crore.

“ Shamim Ahmed Haji, resident of Iqbal Nagar, Sopore, Kashmir, then head of the J&K Bank, Infantry Road branch, processed and facilitated approval by J&K Bank headquarters against collateral property highly disproportionate to the loan amount,” the ACB said.

“The loan amount of ₹308.13 crore was increased by passing all norms/safeguards laid down by J&K Bank. The company failed to repay the loan on regular intervals. When the account of the firm was declared NPA in September 2017, an amount of ₹285.81 crore was outstanding with the company, besides interest of ₹66.91 crore against mortgaged collateral property valued at ₹171 crore.”

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