Bank of Baroda has sealed the company's spacious 13th floor office at Nariman Point in Mumbai last month
With the CBI unable to nail the promoters of the Rs 800 crore bill discounting scam involving textile export firm, ABC Cotspin, Ministry of corporate affairs has asked the Serious Fraud Investigation Office to undertake a parallel investigation.
An official from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs said, “We have handed over the case to SFIO to undertake a parallel investigation into the corporate fraud. SFIO has written letters to a few officials of the company asking them to submit all relevant documents pertaining to their business.”
SFIO has called the directors of the company for questioning next month.
An email query seeking response from the promoter went unanswered.
Promoter Ashish Jobanputra, a textile trader and promoter of ABC Cotspin allegedly defrauded three banks, Axis Bank, State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda, by submitting false bills of lading.
Though the CBI took up the case in November 2015, no arrests have been so far, and Ashish Jobanputra continues to live in Los Angeles with complete immunity. In fact, until recently, the agency has not even called directors of the company who are in Mumbai for questioning.
After dna broke the story on how CBI is dragging its feet, the investigating agency called a few directors of the company for questioning. However, the agency is yet to get touch with Ashish Jobanputra in the US though he has an operational Indian mobile number.
SFIO's parallel investigation will be in addition to what the CBI is undertaking. SFIO is examining whether the company has set up any firm overseas and whether the promoters had any beneficial ownership or interest in overseas firms and trying to track down the trail of Indian bank funds to offshore locations.
“The company does not respond to any of our notices and the promoters Ashish Jobanputra and his wife are absconding," a source in a bank said.
Bank of Baroda (BoB), which is hot on the heels of the alleged fraudster, sealed the ABC Cotspin spacious office at 13th floor of Regent Chambers in Nariman Point, in Mumbai, on April 26. Until recently the 2,000 square feet property used to be occupied by the erstwhile employees of ABC Cotspin. Now the company is operating out of it premises at the Cotton Exchange at Cotton Green. A Bank of Baroda notice confirming the confiscation of the property hangs on the sealed door. Along with the office space, the bank has laid claims to the 2,200 square feet terrace and two parking lots in the building.
The CBI is carrying on the probe since November 2015 after the banks complained of a fraud. Subsequently, the agency had issued a Red corner notice on Ashish Jobanputra but left out his wife Preeti Jobanputra who was also an active director and who is living with her husband and children in the US.
After dna carried a story on ABC Cotspin on April 12, Ashish Jobanputra called up this correspondent the same day and struck a 30-minute conversation narrating how he is being cornered by banks and that they have frozen all his bank accounts. Though he did not reveal his exact location, he did not deny he was in the US and that he plans to move the courts in India to get justice.
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