IL&FS CEO Ramesh Bawa arrested on charges of fraud

New Delhi: Days after dismissal of his petition by the Supreme Court, the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) on Friday arrested IL&FS CEO Ramesh Bawa in a case related to massive loan defaults.

The former top executive has been held under Section 447 of the Companies Act that enables SFIO to arrest a person for committing fraud.

The apex court had earlier this week dismissed Bawa's petition, which sought to stop the SFIO's criminal proceedings against him.

The SFIO, the investigating arm of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, has been probing a series of defaults by the infrastructure financing major, which is saddled with a debt of around Rs 91,000 crore.

On April 1, the SFIO had arrested Hari Sankaran, former IL&FS chairman, following which Bawa filed an anticipatory bail plea.

The agency accused Sankaran of granting loans to entities that were not credit-worthy or had declared Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) causing massive losses to the company and its creditors.