The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered two different cases against Mumbai-based companies Pratibha Industries Ltd and Vadraj Cement Ltd and their top brass on charges of together siphoning of consortium of banks to the tune of over ₹6,645 crore.

In one case, the CBI said it booked Pratibha Industries and its four directors/guarantors — Ajit Kulkarni, Ravi Kulkarni, Sunanda Datta Kulkarni, and Sharad Prabhakar Deshpande, unknown public servants, and others on a complaint filed by Bank of Baroda accusing them of indulging in bank fraud of ₹4,957.31 crore.

Searches were conducted on Thursday at 4 locations including Mumbai and Thane which led to the recovery of several incriminating documents and articles, the CBI said.

The agency charged that “the accused had diverted huge amount of money from the borrower company to its related parties and subsidiaries and subsequently, these advances were written-off by the company”. It was also alleged that the company had entered into fictitious sales and purchase transactions in order to inflate its turnover, it pointed out.

To avail credit facilities, said the CBI, from the lender banks, the work-in-progress was allegedly inflated and huge amount of Vender Liability was directly adjusted against Customer Account without having any supporting document for the same.

The company, whose accounts were classified as NPA on December 31, 2017, and later as fraud, was into development of infrastructure projects, which included designing, engineering & execution/construction of complex, integrated water transmission, distribution projects, water treatment plants, mass housing projects, precast design & construction, road construction and urban infrastructure etc, the CBI said in a statement.

In the second case, the CBI swung into action on a complaint by Punjab National Bank that a consortium of ten banks were defrauded of ₹1,688.41 crore by Vadraj Cement Limited and their promotor/directors like Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, Krishna Gopal Toshniwal, Vijay Prakash Gopivallabh Sharma, and unknown public servants and persons.

The sleuths carried out searches on Thursday at 3 locations including at Mumbai and Jaipur which, it said, led to recovery of several incriminating documents and articles.

Vadraj Cement had approached consortium of banks for setting up field cement facilities at Mora village in Surat and Thumdi village of Kutch district, Gujarat.

“It was further alleged that the accused had diverted huge amounts from the borrower company to its related parties and subsidiaries. The credit facilities obtained from the banks were allegedly diverted in violation of sanctioned terms and conditions,” the CBI said in a statement.

It was also alleged that the company had opened accounts in non-consortium bank in violation of terms and conditions and received huge amount in those accounts which were subsequently diverted, the agency stressed. The huge amount of transactions were allegedly made by the said private company with shell companies, it added.

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