Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 29: In Rs 1100 crores loan scam of J&K Bank, Anti Corruption Bureau produced a charge- sheet against then JKB Branch Head Mahim, Managing Director of Rice Export India Agro Limited and 29 others, before the Court of Special Judge Anti Corruption Jammu.
The charge-sheet in case FIR number 24/2019, under Section 5(1)(d) r/w 5(2) of J&K Prevention of Corruption Act Svt 2006 and Sections 120-B, 467, 468, 471,420 /RPC, was produced against Sandip Jhunjhunwala, resident of W-25/C, Western Avenue, Sainik Farms, New Delhi (Managing Director M/s REI Agro Limited), Mohd Yousaf Bhat (the then Branch Head Mahim) and other accused persons.
The said case was registered in ACB Jammu for allegedly sanctioning and disbursing Crop Loans to the tune of Rs 400 crores, Term Loan Rs 150 crores from J&K Bank Branch Mahim and Bill Discounting facilities to the tune of Rs 115 crores from J&K Bank Vasant Vihar Branch in favour of M/s REI Agro Limited without tangible securities and in violation of banking norms.
M/s REI Agro Ltd was a purchaser and processor of Basmati paddy in the country and for that purpose it used to avail Crop Loans from banks and credit the same to the accounts of farmers/JLG groups (Joint Liability Groups) and obtain the paddy/paddy produce from them and after processing the paddy in the mill owned by the company, it was selling rice in the market to repay the loans so obtained.
A model was devised by J&K Bank where under the bank was to provide Crop Loan to the farmers and the farmers were supposed to provide paddy to the company M/s REI Agro Limited and in turn the company had to sell the produce (paddy) and the remittance thereof had to be deposited in the bank as installments against advances received by the company. In this connection a Tripartite Agreement was executed between J&K Bank, M/s REI Agro Limited and JLGs and also an agreement was executed between farmers and JLGs.
Investigation has revealed that the company REI Agro Ltd, its Chairman and Managing Director had no intention of repaying the loans to the bank. The sole purpose from the very beginning was to swindle the funds obtained. In the instant case Rs 400 Crores Crop Loans were availed by the company through JLGs in the names of farmers and the same was misappropriated by the JLGs (Joint Liability Groups) and Company in connivance with the officers of J&K Bank Limited. The company with the malafide intention to cheat the J&K Bank hatched a conspiracy with the Officers of J&K Bank and some private persons representing as JLGs created fictitious lists of farmers who were non-existent under each JLG group and got the loan funds credited directly in the accounts of these JLGs who later diverted the funds back to the borrower company M/s REI Agro Ltd without crediting it to any farmers account.
While disbursing the Crop loans, the then Branch Head Mahim, Mohd. Yousaf Bhat failed to ensure that the loan proceeds were to be disbursed to the individual farmers as prescribed in the sanction conditions and instead the payments were made in the accounts of various JLGs thereby defeating the very purpose of the sanction meant for raising crops. Moreover the loans were disbursed in violation of the disbursement conditions as a result of it huge loss was caused to the Bank. The accounts of the company have been classified as NPA by the Bank.
Besides this, the company also availed Bill Discounting Facilities to the tune of Rs 115 crores from J&K Bank Branch Vasant Vihar in the year 2013. Under this facility J&K Bank discounted Bills of identified Suppliers of M/s REI Agro Limited and the Bill could not be realized due to the fraud committed by the company with J&K Bank as well with other Banks. There was no genuine business of the company with the suppliers whose bills were submitted by the company for discount.
During investigation, it has been established that the loans were sanctioned with malafide intention in violation of banking norms in order to confer undue benefit upon the promoters of the company and JLGs. Further investigation is in progress to locate the remaining JLGs and the involvement of the officials of this Zonal Office and Corporate Office of J&K Bank Mumbai & Srinagar in the grant of loan and bill discounting facilities in favor of the borrower which has resulted the accounts becoming NPA and the funds being siphoned out.
Meanwhile, several lower and middle rung officials of the J&K Bank have expressed strong resentment over non-inclusion of not even a single member of the Board of Directors as an accused in the scam. Maintaining that these Corporate loans running over hundreds of crores are sanctioned by Board of Directors of J&K Bank presided by Finance Commissioner, they said that the investigation in these Corporate loans should begin from the top but ACB never reaches above clerks, loan managers and branch heads.
“When loan managers and branch heads take due diligence in small housing loans, it is not possible that they will connive with the big business houses who have direct links with the Ministers, Chief Ministers and bureaucrats,” they said, adding that the ACB in every charge-sheet says that role of senior bank officers are being looked into but till date it was never looked into and not a single member of Board of Directors has been made as an accused.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
