CBI officers who supervised investigations into the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata and the killing of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar are among those awarded police medals on Republic Day.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has begun preliminary examination of allegations of banking fraud in loans worth Rs 2,500 crore disbursed to Zoom Developers, a Mumbai-based project developer.
Banks do extensive investigation before declaring an account fraud; they owe it to us as they deal with our money. Why would they try to fix an innocent borrower? asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Official is accused of taking a bribe of Rs 2 cr to issue order in an appeal favouring Balaji Trust
All these companies were provided loans by PNB as part of consortium lending.
Mumbai-based Zoom Developers, engaged in diversified businesses including real estate, plans to invest Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) in the next three years to construct a 100 hectare IT-ITeS special economic zone at Indore.
According to the RTI reply, absconding diamantaire Choksi's company Gitanjali Gems tops the list of the defaulters with a whopping amount of Rs 5,492 crore. This is followed by REI Agro with Rs 4,314 crore and Winsome Diamonds with Rs 4,076 crore. Rotomac Global Private Limited has funded advances of Rs 2,850 crore which have been technically written off and Kudos Chemie Ltd with Rs 2,326 crore, Ruchi Soya Industries Limited, now owned by Ramdev's Patanjali, with Rs 2,212 crore and Zoom Developers Pvt Ltd with Rs 2,012 crore being the other companies to default on the payment. Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines figures in the list at number 9, with outstanding of Rs 1943 crore which have been technically written off by the banks.
The large wilful defaulters, according to the list published by PNB, include embattled businessman Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines with an outstanding of Rs 597.44 crore.
CBI sources said the shell companies were allegedly being used by the suspects to divert loan funds meant for specified purposes, creating fake invoices, and 'round-tripping' of funds to evade taxes and generate black money.
The Reserve Bank had submitted a list of 150 top loan defaulters who owe banks more than Rs 500 crore in a sealed cover to the Supreme Court.
India's five leading wilful defaulters are Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery Ltd and associate Forever Precious Jewellery & Diamonds, Zoom Developers, Kingfisher Airlines, Beta Naphthol and Raza Textiles
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