Bank Fraud: CBI arrests directors of Ludhiana’s RS Fasteners, two PNB officials
By SK Vyas/Raju William
New Delhi, July 20, 2017: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three directors of a Ludhiana-based private company and two officials of Punjab National Bank (PNB) in Rs 56 crore fraud case.
Those arrested included Rajesh Kumar Maheshwari, Ajai Kumar Maheshwari and Sanjeev Kumar Maheshwari, all directors of RS Fasteners (India) Private Limited Ludhiana.
The bank officials included DK Sethi, the then Manager, Punjab National Bank, Overlock Road Branch, Ludhiana and SK Sinha, the then Incharge Credit of the same branch.
All five were arrested during an ongoing investigation of the case in an on-going investigation of a case of defrauding the said PNB branch.
The accused were produced on Thursday before the Special Judge, CBI Court, Mohali, Punjab. They were remanded to police custody till July 25, 2017.
The CBI spokesperson said the case was registered under section 120 B read with section 420, 467, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code ( IPC ) and Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against these five, a Chartered Accountant, other unknown bank officials and private persons.
It was alleged that the directors of the said private company entered into criminal conspiracy with involving both officials of the bank and others.
They cheated the bank by way of diversion of the cash credit (CC) funds sanctioned for operating business and siphoning off the funds sanctioned for purchase of the machines from the term loans on forged documents.
It was also alleged that the said accused persons in connivance with the bank officials transferred the funds abroad in favor of the foreign suppliers of the machines out of the term loan which was neither returned nor the machines were received against the foreign remittance.
They diverted the CC funds and Term Loans through a number of local vendors. An alleged loss of about Rs.74 crore was caused to Punjab National Bank.
Further investigation is on.