The CBI on Saturday arrested Syndicate Bank CMD SK Jain, his two close relatives and nine others on charges of taking a bribe of Rs50 lakh to enhance the credit limit of some companies in violation of banking rules.
The agency officials arrested Jain from his residence in Banglore, while others were nabbed during simultaneous raids at 20 places in Bangalore, Bhopal, Mumbai and Delhi. The search operations and arrests continued late into the night on Saturday.
The CBI was investigating an internally developed intelligence and had been monitoring Jain for the past six months before arresting him in Bangalore. The CBI seized Rs21 lakh in cash, gold worth Rs1.68 crore and FDRs worth Rs63 lakh from Jain's house.
The CBI has filed two cases under prevention of corruption act and criminal conspiracy against Jain for allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs50 lakh and "fraudulently bypassing" rules and regulations to enhance the credit limit of two companies, including Prakash Industries and Bhushan Steel, which have been involved in a multi-crore coal scam. "Jain has been indulging in negotiations for illegal gratification directly as well as through middlemen for extending undue favour to private companies by granting sanction to various financial proposals," a senior CBI officer said.
The other accused in the case include vice-chairman of Bhushan Steel Limited Neeraj Singhal, chairman-cum-MD of Prakash Industries Ved Prakash Agarwal, Vipul Agarwal of Prakash Industries. Also, Pawan Bansal, Vineet Godha, Puneet Godha, Vijay Pahuja, Pursotam Lal Totlani and Pankaj Bansal have been named in the case.
Vineet and Puneet are close relatives of Jain, while Vijay Pahuja, a cement trader, is a partner of the brothers. The three were produced before a Bhopal court on Saturday and granted transit remand till August 4, when they have to be produced before a court in Delhi. Vineet Godha has also worked as state Congress spokesperson in MP.
According to the CBI, Jain was directly negotiating with a private company for an illegal gratification of Rs50 lakh in lieu of granting credit extension to the company as it had defaulted on payment of loan installments amounting to crores to the bank. "The company allegedly agreed to pay the money. It was transferred to the middlemen who are also relatives of the public servant. The CBI laid a trap and recovered the money during the operation," the officer said.
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