Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Feb 1: The Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) has unearthed a major fraud running into Rs 174.62 lakh involving a Punjab based industrialist, his associates in Jammu and some unnamed officers of Revenue Department and Punjab National Bank (PNB), Rehari Chowk branch.
The CBI, Jammu wing, has registered a First Information Report (FIR) No. 6/2012 in the scam and conducted raids in the premises of industrialist and his associates to obtain some documents pertaining to the scam.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Revenue documents had been tampered with to such an extent that rate of the land mortgaged to the bank had been changed from Rs 40,000 per kanal to Rs 40,000 per marla to inflate its value for securing higher amount from the Bank.
Sources said the CBI team was on the job to ascertain identities of PNB officers and Revenue Department, who were at the helm of affairs at the time of fraud to name them in the FIR and pursue further investigations against them.
The FIR was registered against Ravi Kumar son of Lal Chand R/o Basti Nau, Jalandhar, Punjab, the Proprietor of M/s S.L. Rubbers Industries, Industrial Growth Centre, Samba, his associate Krishan Kumar Sharma son of Bachitru Ram R/o Gangyal and unknown officers of Punjab National Bank Branch, Rehari and Revenue Department.
Investigations conducted by the CBI revealed that the industrialist Ravi Kumar and his associate Krishan Kumar Sharma (mortgagor/guarantor) hatched a conspiracy with unknown officers of PNB, Rehari Chowk, Jammu and unnamed officers of Revenue Department and got sanctioned loan from the bank worth Rs.163.20 lakh.
The loan included CC Limit of Rs. 65.14 lakh and term loan of Rs. 98.06 lakh. For securing loans, the accused deposited forged and fabricated revenue documents. The borrower turned defaulter and the loan accounts became Non Performing Asset (NPA) on August 30 last year with total outstanding of Rs 174.62 lakh.
Despite repeated reminders by the bank authorities, the industrialist refused to repay the loan amount on different pretexts. The senior bank officials then approached the CBI, which conducted investigations and found that it was a major scam in which the documents had been tampered with to convert land record per kanal into marla to inflate figure of the land value.
After obtaining a warrant from the court, the CBI conducted searches in the premises (office and industry) of Ravi Kumar and Krishan Kumar Sharma’s house at Gangyal, sources said, adding that the CBI officials recovered some documents during the raid pertaining to the scam, which could be useful in further investigations of the case.
Investigations conducted so far by the CBI has also revealed that land measuring 20 kanals, situated at Langrial and mortgaged by Ravi Kumar Gupta in favour of M/s S L Rubber Industries had been evaluated by M S Arora, Valuer at the realizable value of Rs 80 lakh on the basis of revenue report dated 09.08.2005, submitted by Revenue authorities Chadwal in Hiranagar tehsil of Kathua district.
The Halqa Patwari Chak Dyala, Tehsil Hiranagar had issued the revenue report to Ravi Kumar Gupta, son of Chajju Bhagat Gupta R/o Kanji House, Jammu, mortgagor, who was accompanied by accused Ravi Kumar, borrower. The photocopy of revenue report was given to the bank where alteration were done in such a manner that Rs. 40,000 per Kanal rate was changed into Rs. 40,000 per Marla in Urdu to induce bank to sanction credit facilities in favour of borrower, sources said.
They added that the CBI teams were in the process of identification of PNB and Revenue officers involved in the scam to include their names in the FIR. Sources said the CBI was looking as to whether the PNB officers had deliberately ignored mistake in the documents especially the conversion of land rate from per kanal to per marla. The role of Revenue officers, who were posted in Hiranagar tehsil at the time of valuation of land, was also under scrutiny.
Sources didn’t rule out the involvement of senior officers of Revenue Department and the Punjab National Bank in the scam going by the huge amount involved in it.
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