Three promoters of electrical equipment firm arrested in Rs 2,600-cr bank scam

According to CBI, Diamond Power Infrastructure Ltd. had fraudulently availed credit facilities from a consortium of 11 banks.

In a joint operation, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested three promoters of Vadodara-based Diamond Power Infrastructure Ltd. (DPIL), accused of defrauding a consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 2,654 crore, officials said on Wednesday.

The three promoters — SN Bhatnagar and his sons Amit and Sumit — were held from a hotel in Udaipur in Rajasthan on Tuesday night, they said.

DPIL manufactures electric cables and other electrical equipment.

“The CBI had sought our help in nabbing the Bhatnagar trio. Based on a tip-off that they were hiding in a hotel, a joint team of Gujarat ATS and CBI conducted a raid in Udaipur and arrested them,” a senior ATS official said.

The CBI had filed a complaint against the promoters two weeks ago.

According to CBI, DPIL had fraudulently availed credit facilities from a consortium of 11 banks (both public and private) from 2008, leading to outstanding debt of Rs 2,654.40 crore as of June 29, 2016.

It was declared a non-performing asset in 2016-17.

The company allegedly submitted false stock statements to the lead bank by treating ‘receivables more than 180 days’ (non-current assets) as ‘less than 180 days’ (current assets) to get more drawing power in the cash credit accounts.

The CBI alleged that DPIL extensively utilised cash credit limits for obtaining a large number of letters of credit, and many of them could not be honoured by the company and were thus “forced charged” on the credit limit.

Bank of India’s exposure to the company is Rs 670.51 crore, Bank of Baroda’s exposure is Rs 348.99 crore and that of ICICI Bank is Rs 279.46 crore, the CBI FIR said.