Mumbai: CBI raids Pratibha Industries officials in loan fraud case worth Rs 4,957 crore

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has lodged a case of a bank loan fraud of Rs 4957 cr against Pratibha Industries, it`s Directors and others and is conducting raids in Mumbai and Thane.

According to information, a complaint was lodged on September 12, 2022 by Sanjay Kumar Tiwary, Deputy General Manager, Stressed Assets Management Branch, Bank of Baroda, Mumbai against Pratibha Industries Limited, it`s Directors Ajit Bhagwan Kulkarni, Ravi Kulkarni, Sunanda Datta Kulkarni, Sharad Prabhakar Deshpande and others for causing a wrongful loss of Rs 4957.31 crore (Rs. 4735.67 crore as per the complaint made by Bank of Baroda and Rs 221.64 crore as per the mandate dated 13.09.2022 given by SBI - one of the Consortium Member Bank) to the Consortium of Banks led by Bank of Baroda. The CBI after receiving the complaint lodged a case under sections 120-B, 420 IPC and 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of the PC Act and formed a team to look into the matter.

The account of Pratibha Industries was classified as NPA on December 31, 2017. Subsequently the accounts were also declared as fraud by the members of the consortium banks.

Pratibha Industries was into development of infrastructure projects, which included designing, engineering and execution, construction of complex, integrated water transmission, distribution projects, water treatment plants, mass housing projects, precast design and construction, road construction and urban infrastructure etc.

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"The accused had diverted huge amount of money from the borrower company to its related parties & subsidiaries and subsequently, these advances were written-off by the company. The company had entered into fictitious sales & purchase transactions in order to inflate its turnover. Further, to avail credit facilities 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 CBI said.

On Thursday the CBI conducted raids at 14 locations belonging to the accused and bank officials which led to recovery of several incriminating documents and articles.