Court takes cognizance against shipping company, former Director in Rs 22,000 crore bank fraud case

New Delhi [India], August 13 (ANI): A Rouse Avenue court has taken cognizance of a Rs. 22,000 crore alleged bank fraud and funds siphoning case against Surat, Gujarat-based ABG Shipyard Ltd, its former Director, Auditor, public servants, and subsidiary companies.
It is alleged that ABG Shipyard Ltd transferred huge amounts of money to its related parties, and thereafter, adjustment entries were made.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed a charge sheet, supplementary charge against 6 individuals and 17 companies and firms.
The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Deepak Kumar, after taking cognizance, issued summons to the accused persons to appear before the court on the next date on August 22.
CJM Deepak Kumar said, "I have perused the chargesheet and supplementary charge sheet alongwith the documents annexed with it, including the statements of the witnesses recorded under Section 161 CrPC and have considered the submissions made by the public prosecutor for the CBI and the Investigation Officer."
The court said that there are clear and categorical findings in the final report and supplementary final report against the accused persons regarding the commission of offences for which they have been chargesheeted for the offences punishable under Section 120B/420/477A IPC and substantive offences thereof.
"Accordingly, in view of the foregoing discussion and material available on record, I take cognizance," CJM Kumar ordered on August 11.
The CBI had registered a case on August 25, 2020, on the complaint filed by the consortium of banks, including SBI.
The case was registered against M/s ABG Shipyard Ltd, its former managing director Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, Santhanam Muthuswamy), Ashwini Kumar, Sushil Kumar Aggarwal, Ravi Vimal Newatia, M/s ABG International Pvt Ltd, unknown public servants and unknown private persons alleging the commission of offences of cheating, criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy and abuse of official position thereby causing wrongful loss to the tune of Rs. 22,842 crore to the consortium of lending banks comprising of State Bank of India (SBI), erstwhile State Bank of Patiala (presently SBI), erstwhile State Bank of Travancore (presently SBI) etc, led by ICICI Bank.
During the investigation, other accused were interrogated and arrayed in the supplementary charge sheet.
It is stated that the Investigation has also revealed that the accounts were falsified and misrepresented by the accused persons in criminal conspiracy with each other and thereby defrauded the lender banks by presenting false figures before the lenders and shareholders.
Investigation has pointed out that ABG Shipyard, in criminal conspiracy with its promoters, directors, and other key managerial persons, had availed credit facilities from the banks fraudulently. Thereafter, it dishonestly diverted a huge amount of bank funds with ulterior motives to its group concerns.
Investigation has further alleged that ABG Shipyard had siphoned off funds for acquiring 14 residential flats in Mumbai for a consideration amount of Rs. 33.50 crores. These flats were purchased by an accused company which was under the control of Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, Former MD of ABG Shipyard. (ANI)