The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against M/s Saravana Stores (Gold Palace), T. Nagar, and its partners on charges of cheating the Indian Bank to the tune of ₹312.13 crore.
Acting on a complaint lodged by the bank, the agency’s Economic Offences Wing booked the company and its partners P. Sujatha, Y.P. Shiravan and others. The allegation is that the partners conspired with certain public servants and others in pursuance of the criminal conspiracy to cheat the bank. They availed a term loan of ₹150 crore for purchase of a commercial showroom and Open Cash Credit of ₹90 crore as working capital. The loans were sanctioned in 2017.
According to the First Information Report, the accused persons overstated the inventory, transferred assets without the knowledge of the bank, used Open Cash Credit limits to repay the term loan, misappropriated and diverted the funds for purposes not sanctioned by the bank. This resulted in a wrongful loss to the tune of ₹312.13 crore. The account was declared as fraud on April 29, 2021.
Since accusations were also made against unknown public servants, the CBI also invoked provisions under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against the accused persons.
