Indian Banks Association is preparing a detailed memorandum that will list out a few measures for protection against arbitrary arrests by investigative agencies
Bankers are planning to petition the government for immunity from "frivolous arrests" for their credit decisions, so that loans sanctions do not get frozen in the country.
Bankers in an earlier representation had asked the government for an amendment to Prevention of Corruption Act so that bankers are not arrested unless frauds and corruption is established.
A senior banker said, "We are not going to get cowed down by the arbitrary arrests by the investigative agencies. Loan sanctions will continue so that industrial activity is not frozen. But we want some kind of immunity against frivolous arrests, especially if the intend was not mala fide."
Indian Banks Association (IBA), a lobby body for banking sector, is preparing a detailed memorandum that will list out a few measures for protection against arbitrary arrests by investigative agencies. They are also demanding setting up of an independent committee with a RBI nominee to whet the complaints of impropriety that come from Economic Offences Wing and other agencies. The memorandum will be submitted by senior bankers' delegation to the government.
Last week the Economic Offences Wing of the Pune Police arrested Bank of Maharashtra CEO and MD Ravindra Marathe along with five other bank officials for sanctioning Rs 10 crore additional finance to DSK Group, a Pune-based builder group and the bank's customer for the last 20 years. The group has a consortium loan of Rs 3,000 crore in which Bank of Maharashtra also has a share. The bank's zonal manager Nityanand Deshpande, executive director Rajendra K Gupta and former CMD Sushil Muhnot were also arrested.
The first instance of arrest was when former chairman and managing director of Yogesh Aggarwal along with other officials were arrested long after his retirement for an unsecured loan of Rs 850 crore he sanctioned to Vijay Mallya's KingFisher Airlines.
More recently four former IDBI Bank officials Kishore Kharat, chairman and managing director, Indian Bank, Melwyn Rego, chairman and managing director, Syndicate Bank and other former and serving officials of IDBI Bank were charge-sheeted for loans sanctioned to serial entrepreneur C Sivasankaran.
Former Punjab National Bank CEO Usha Ananthasubramanian was also booked for the Nirav Modi fraud that took place while she was the chairman of the bank. The CBI had also booked former CMD of United Bank of India Archana Bhargava for amassing assets worth over Rs 3.6 crore allegedly disproportionate to her known sources of income. However no arrests were made in these two cases.
UNDER CLOUD
- Indian Banks Association is preparing a detailed memorandum that will list out a few measures for protection against arbitrary arrests by investigative agencies.
- Bankers are demanding setting up of an independent committee with a RBI nominee to whet the complaints of impropriety that come from Economic Offences Wing and other agencies
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