CBI charge sheets former public servants in loan fraud, bribery case
MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday submitted its charge sheet in a Mumbai court against five persons, including the former chairperson and managing director (CMD) of public sector enterprise, BECIL (Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited), Noida, and the founder of a Mumbai firm, in a case linked to alleged irregularities in the sanction and disbursal of multi-crore loans and bribery transactions.
The CBI probe found that George Kuruvilla, former CMD of BECIL, was allegedly paid undue advantages of ₹3 crore by an official of a Mumbai-based firm called Green Billions Limited, for favours. The CBI's Mumbai unit had initiated its probe on September 3 last year, based on a reference from the Union ministry of information and broadcasting, to probe alleged irregularities in the sanction and disbursal of a venture loan of ₹50 crore by the then CMD to the Mumbai firm, which remained outstanding.
The CBI charge sheet was filed against the then CMD, George Kuruvilla, BECIL's then general manager (GM) WB Prasad, BECIL's then legal advisor Ashish Singh, Mumbai-based firm Green Billions Limited, and the firm's then chief executive officer (CEO) and founder, Prateek Kanakia. During investigations, the CBI arrested Kuruvilla, Prasad and Kanakia, who are in judicial custody.
The investigation revealed that during 2022, Kuruvilla had allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy with the other accused, with the intent to cheat BECIL of ₹50 crore, on the pretext of sanctioning and disbursing a venture loan of ₹50 crore to the Mumbai firm, according to CBI officials.
The investigation further revealed that the former BECIL officials accused in the case had then obtained a short-term corporate loan of ₹80 crore from IREDA (Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited), a public sector enterprise, and of the said loan, they disbursed ₹50 crore to the Mumbai firm as a venture loan for a waste-to-energy project in the Pune Municipal Corporation. The project was awarded to another private firm, the officials said.
CBI's investigation also revealed that Kanakia did not utilise the disbursed funds in the project. Instead, he diverted most of the funds for his own use and also paid undue advantage of ₹2 crore in April 2022 and ₹1 crore in April 2023 to the main accused, George Kuruvilla, a CBI official said.
Investigations also revealed that to access the remaining amount of the sanctioned loan of ₹80 crore by IREDA to BECIL, the accused officers of BECIL allegedly sanctioned additional funds of ₹25 crore to the Mumbai firm on September 5, 2022. Further, the original documents relating to the project at BECIL were allegedly destroyed by the accused persons, according to CBI officials.
CBI's probe found that the accused officials allegedly received a forged Performance Bank Guarantee (a financial security guaranteeing that a project or contract will be completed according to agreed terms), dated November 28, 2022, of ₹25 crore, purportedly issued by a public sector bank, and that after the disbursal of the ₹50-crore loan, they did not ensure end-use of the funds for the given purpose, CBI officials said.
Kanakia did not repay the outstanding loan amount to BECIL. Further, Kuruvilla and Prasad did not obtain any collateral security from the Mumbai firm to secure the loan. A wrongful loss of ₹58.60 crore was caused to BECIL, the CBI official said.
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