News Analysis India

Tag: CBI

  • ABG Shipyard fraud: SBI says no delay in filing of case

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Amid allegations of delay in filing of complaint against the country’s biggest bank fraud totaling Rs 22,842 crore, State Bank of India (SBI) on Sunday said it has been diligently following the ABG Shipyard fraud case with the CBI following the forensic audit report.

    The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recently booked ABG Shipyard Limited, its former chairman and managing director Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal and others for allegedly cheating a consortium of two dozen lenders led by ICICI Bank.

    ABG Shipyard fraud is much higher than the one perpetrated by Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, who allegedly cheated the Punjab National Bank (PNB) of around Rs 14,000 crore through issuance of fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs).

    Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala while addressing a press conference wondered as to why did it take five years after the liquidation proceedings of ABG Shipyard to lodge even an FIR for duping 28 banks of Rs 22,842 crore.

    “Why did the Modi government refuse to take note of the allegations made on February 15, 2018, by the Congress, warning of a scam in ABG Shipyard, and why no FIR was lodged and criminal action taken despite their accounts having been declared as fraud on June 19, 2019?” he asked.

    Responding to the allegation, SBI in a statement said a fraud is declared basis the forensic audit report findings that are discussed thoroughly in joint lenders meetings and when a fraud is declared, an initial complaint is preferred with the CBI and based on their enquiries further information is gathered.

    “In a few cases, when substantial additional information is gathered, a second complaint incorporating full and complete details is filed which forms basis for the FIR. At no point in time, there was any effort to delay the process. The lenders forum diligently follows through with CBI in all such cases,” it said.

    Surjewala said SBI wrote to the CBI in November 2018, “Saying there was a fraud committed by ABG Shipyard and seeking the registration of an FIR and criminal action. Despite this, nothing happened and the CBI pushed the files back to the SBI.”

    Sharing the timeline of events, the statement said the loan, given by a consortium of lenders led by ICICI Bank, turned NPA on November 30, 2013.

    Several efforts were made to revive the company operations but could not succeed, it said, adding the account was restructured under CDR mechanism in March 2014 by all lenders but it could not be recused.

    “As the restructuring failed, account classified as NPA (non-performing asset) in July 2016 with back dated effect from November 30, 2013. E&Y were appointed as forensic auditor by lenders during April 2018 and they submitted their report in January 2019. E&Y report was placed before the Fraud Identification Committee of 18 lenders in 2019. Fraud is mainly attributed to diversion of funds, misappropriation and criminal breach of trust,” it said.

    Although, ICICI Bank was the lead lender in the consortium and IDBI was the second lead, it was preferred that SBI being the largest public sector bank, lodges the complaint with CBI, it said.

    “The first complaint was filed with CBI in November 2019. There was continuous engagement between CBI and Banks and further information was getting exchanged,” it said.

    The circumstances of the fraud as well as CBI requirements were further deliberated in the various meetings of Joint Lenders and a fresh and comprehensive second complaint was filed in December 2020, it said. The account is presently undergoing liquidation under a NCLT-driven process.

    The Forensic Audit has shown that between 2012-17, the accused colluded together and committed illegal activities including diversion of funds, misappropriation and criminal breach of trust.

  • SC to consider listing for early hearing of plea seeking quick trial of cases against politicians

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to consider listing for early hearing the PIL which has sought expeditious trial of criminal cases against lawmakers and speedy investigation by CBI and other agencies.

    A bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana took note of the submissions of senior advocate and amicus curiae Vijay Hansaria that the plea needed to be listed for urgent hearing.

    Hansaria said a fresh report, giving details of the pending cases against serving and former MPs, MLAs and MLCs, has been filed with the court and urgent, stringent steps are needed for expeditious disposal of the pending criminal cases. “We will see,” said the bench which also comprised justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli.

    As per the recent report, a total of 4,984 cases are pending against Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly/Council out of which 1,899 cases are more than five years old. The report stated that the total number of cases pending as of December 2018 was 4,110; and as of October 2020 it was 4,859.

    “Even after disposal of 2775 cases after December 4, 2018, the cases against MPs/MLAs have increased from 4,122 to 4,984. This shows that more and more persons with criminal antecedents are occupying the seats in the Parliament and the State Legislative Assemblies. It is of utmost necessity that urgent and stringent steps are taken for expeditious disposal of pending criminal cases,” said the report filed through advocate Sneha Kalita.

    The top court has been passing a slew of directions time-to-time on the plea filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay for ensuring expeditious trial of cases against lawmakers and speedy investigation by the CBI and other agencies.

    Hansaria said the status report filed by high courts also shows that special courts are constituted in some of the states whereas, in others, the courts of the respective jurisdiction are conducting trials in terms of the directions passed from time to time.

    On November 24 last year, the top court had asked the Allahabad High Court to issue a fresh notification to set up special magisterial courts to try minor offences involving lawmakers and ensure allocation of cases to sessions or magisterial courts depending upon the gravity of offences, saying the non-setting up of such courts in Uttar Pradesh was “based on an evident misconstruction” of its orders.

    The top court had taken exception to the non-setting up of special magisterial courts in Uttar Pradesh for trying lawmakers in minor offences and said that the notification issued by the high court on August 16, 2019, was based on an “evident misconstruction” of its directions.

    The order had come on pleas raising the legal question of whether minor offences, triable by magisterial courts, against lawmakers can be prosecuted before a special court presided over by a sessions judge who is senior to a judicial magistrate.

  • Rajasthan Assembly’s Budget session begins, BJP demands CBI probe into REET paper leak

    By PTI

    JAIPUR: The Budget session of the Rajasthan Assembly began on Wednesday with Governor Kalraj Mishra highlighting the state government’s achievements in his address in the House and the opposition BJP demanding a CBI probe into the REET paper leak scandal.

    Despite the governor asking them to sit down, the BJP members, who wore black bands on their arms, kept standing in their places as a mark of protest. Three Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) MLAs also entered the well of the House over the REET paper leak issue and staged a walkout.

    However, there was no disruption and the governor completed his address in nearly an hour. Mishra lauded the state government for its management of the COVID-19 pandemic and said it had emerged as a “role model”.

    During the pandemic, 33 lakh poor families were given financial assistance of Rs 5,500 each with total spending of Rs 1,815 crore, he said. He added that the state also developed the capacity to conduct 1.45 lakh RT-PCR tests and the health infrastructure was strengthened.

    The governor said the state government waived farmers’ loans worth Rs 8,181 crore from cooperative banks. Apart from this, the government settled an outstanding payment of Rs 6,000 crore of the previous government.

    With this, the government has waived farmers’ loans worth more than Rs 14,000 crore in all. On the state government’s ‘I Am Shakti Yojana’ to distribute free sanitary napkins to girls, Mishra said it is the beginning of a change.

    ALSO READ| REET paper leak: Guilty won’t be spared, says Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot

    Earlier, there was hesitation in society in talking about menstruation and menstrual hygiene, which resulted in women contracting serious diseases. Now, with this scheme, women will get rid of such problems, he said.

    Due to the compulsory registration of FIRs in the state, Mishra said, women and the weaker sections have been encouraged to come forward to register police complaints.

    In 2017, nearly 33.4 per cent of rape cases were registered through courts. This has now come down to 16 per cent, he said. Similarly, the average time for the investigation of rape cases has come down from 274 in 2017-18 to 79 days now, he added.

    The governor highlighted various other government schemes and programmes like ‘Mukhya Mantri Chiranjeevi Swasthya Bima Yojana’ and transgender welfare fund, etc.

    The House reassembled after Mishra left. Newly elected Congress MLAs Preeti Shaktawat (Vallabhnagar) and Nagraj Meena (Dhariawad) took oath. They won bye-elections in November last year.

    Later, Speaker CP Joshi made obituary references and the House paid tributes to legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar; country’s first Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat; former Rajya Sabha MP Jamna Devi; former Lok Sabha MPs Gangaram Koli, Shyam Sundar Somani, Brijraj Singh and DN Patodiya; former MLAs Jainarayan Poonia, Mahipal Maderna, Mohan Lal Chauhan, Kamal Ram Koli, Jeetmal Jain, Ramkaran Chaudhary, Heeralal Khant, Goverdhan Singh and Surajmal.

    The House also paid tributes to those killed in a road accident at the Jodhpur-Balotra road on November 11 last year and in the Guwahati-Bikaner train accident on January 13 this year. After the obituary references, the House was adjourned for the day.

  • CBI arrests branch manager of Equitas Bank for accepting bribe to approve business loan

    NEW DELHI: A team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Akella Srinivas Anudra, branch manager of Dwarakanagar branch of Equitas Small Finance Bank on Monday in Vishakhapatnam, while he was allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1.30 lakh from a local businessman to approve a business loan.

    According to the official spokesperson of CBI (HQ) RC Joshi, a local businessman (name withheld as per CBI rule) had approached the manager of said, the branch of Equitas Small Finance Bank for a business loan of Rs 20 lakhs recently.

    The branch manager allegedly demanded 10 per cent of the total amount of applied loan for approving the required amount of business loan. The accused further informed the complainant that his loan was sanctioned but demanded a bribe of Rs 2 lakh for facilitating disbursement of the loan amount.

    “After negotiation, the accused allegedly agreed to reduce the bribe amount from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 1.30 lakh to the complainant,” Joshi said in a statement.

    Finally, fed up with such an act of bribery by Anudra, the businessman turned complainant and registered a case with the CBI against the branch manager.

    After verifying the allegations, a team of CBI officers laid a trap and caught the accused Anudra red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 1.30 lakhs from the complainant.

    Joshi further said that the role of a clerk of the Vizianagaram branch of the State Bank of India is also being looked into the case by the CBI. After arresting Anudra, the CBI team conducted simultaneous searches at the office and his residential premises of the accused at Vishakhapatnam and Vizianagaram. Anudra will be produced in the concerned court on Tuesday at Vishakhapatnam.

  • Two Union secretaries may soon be repatriated to UP over role in Rs 2,268 crore PF scam

    Express News Service

    The Union power secretary Alok Kumar and agriculture secretary Sanjay Agarwal may soon be repatriated to their cadre state Uttar Pradesh where the CBI has sought sanction to investigate them in a Rs 2,268 crore PF scam.

    Sources said that the order for their repatriation may come “any time” as the Union government does not want to face the embarrassment of having its top officers investigated for corruption. The government, therefore, wants to shift the action to the state.

    The CBI has sought the sanction to probe the two officers in a case relating to illegally investing the provident fund of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) employees in a private company Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), which was later accused of siphoning off Rs 31,000 crore of bank loans through a web of shell companies. The UPPCL invested a total of Rs 4,122 crore in short-term fixed deposit schemes of DHFL, out of which Rs 1,854 crore was received on maturation of FDs, but Rs 2,268 crore is still not recovered.

    Mr Sanjay Agarwal was UPPCL chairman from 2013 to the middle of 2017, and part of the UPPCL employees’ PF money was invested in DHFL during this period. The investment in DHFL was in violation of government guidelines that expressly said that PF money should not be invested in a financial institution that is not a scheduled bank. Mr Agarwal was succeeded in UPPCL by Mr Alok Kumar, who continued investing in DHFL. Mr Kumar remained at the helm of UPPCL for almost two years.

    The case was handed over to the CBI by the Yogi Adityanath government in March 2020. Before that, the matter was investigated by the economic offences wing of Uttar Pradesh police. About a dozen people, including former managing director A P Mishra and other top officials, have been arrested so far.

    Besides Mr Alok Kumar and Mr Sanjay Agarwal, the CBI has sought sanction from the Uttar Pradesh government to investigate another IAS officer Aparna U, who is at present serving as secretary in the government of Uttar Pradesh. Ms Aparna had succeeded Mr Alok Kumar as the MD, UPPCL.

    As per recent changes made by the Centre in the standard operating procedure for investigating public servants, the investigating agency is required to first verify that a case is made out against a government servant before seeking sanction for proceeding against him. The CBI is, therefore, convinced these officers are prima facie involved in the PF scam.

    DHFL promoters Wadhawan brothers – Dheeraj and Kapil – are already in CBI custody in the Yes Bank case.

  • CBI may go for modernisation and renovations of units with hiked allocations in union budget

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: With the allocation of Rs 911.86 crore in the union budget for the establishment expenditure during the fiscal year of 2022-23, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as the country’s premier investigation agency, may go further for a mega renovation of training establishments, modernization of its forensic units and completion of other establishment-related on-going works.

    Sources said that the Central Bureau of Investigation, tasked with investigating and prosecuting major corruption and criminal cases, may also go for reducing the existing shortages of personnel and officials in addition to the modernisation and renovation works during the fiscal year of 2022-23.

    As per an official figure, the Central Bureau of Investigation was allotted Rs 835.39 crore to meet its establishment expenditures during the previous 2021-22. And that amount was further revised and enhanced to Rs 870.50 from Rs 835.39 crore for 2021-22.

    ” This year, the total allocation in the union budget of the country for the CBI has been made to Rs 911.86 crore-that is around 4.75% hike from the previous year’s allocation”, a source added.

    At present, the CBI has a working strength of 5,899 officials and personnel against the total sanctioned strength of 7,272 as on March 31 in 2020. So, the vacancies for 1,374 posts, right from the rank of the executive to the canteen posts, amid an increase in the number of cases for investigations exist in theagency.

    “In such a requiring situation, the agency will certainly go for reducing shortages of staffs and manpower with a chunk of fund earmarking from the allotted amounts”, hoped a source.

    With a good number of cases related to corruption frauds, high-profile criminal activities and others of serious natures being referred by the Courts and recommended by the respective states every year for investigation for last few years, the agency has an urgent need to revamp its strength as well asestablishment units further.

    As the finance minister read-out during her 4th consecutive budget speech, the allocation has been made to the CBI for establishment-related expenditures as the agency is tasked with investigating of corruption cases lodged against the public officials, private individuals, businesses and other major crimes.

    It is also learnt that the CBI may also utilize a substantial amount earmarking out of a total allocation for purchasing land and starting construction works of new offices and other residential units on the purchased land in future.

  • Samajwadi Party govt tried to withdraw cases against terrorists: Nadda

    In another incident, a CRPF camp in Rampur was attacked, in which seven soldiers were killed.

  • CBI books EPFO officials for sharing data of subscribers with private PF consultants; receiving bribes

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The CBI has booked over 20 officers of EPFO in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur for allegedly receiving money through payment applications like PayTM, PhonePe and Google Pay among others from private provident fund consultants in return for performing their regular duties like claim settlements, officials said.

    On getting an input that some EPFO officials are indulging in gross misconduct, the central probe agency had carried out joint surprise check with EPFO vigilance department in regional office in Guntur during which it seized the mobile phones of some employees with their consent.

    The scrutiny of their phones showed plethora of information about EPFO beneficiaries like UAN, passwords, OTPs being shared with some phone numbers of private PF consultants, they said.

    “Further, the data exchanged between officials and such private consultants reveals that they are receiving illegal gratification/undue advantage in lieu of doing the EPFO official work.

    The undue advantage in the form of money is unauthorisedly obtained through different mobile payment apps as PayTM, PhonePe and Google Pay etc,” the FIR alleged.

    The analysis of phones showed that employees were received screenshots of payments made through mobile apps after they shared UAN and respective passwords with consultants, it alleged.

    In a separate case related to Rs 18 crore alleged fraud related to EPF claims in EPFO, Mumbai the CBI has conducted searches at four location in Mumbai in which Rs 13.40 lakh (approx) have been recovered in cash.

    On December 30 last year, the CBI had booked several officers of EPFO Mumbai for allegedly settling fraudulent claims in 712 bogus PF accounts causing loss to the tune of Rs.18.97 crore (approx) to the EPF corpus.

    “It was further alleged that accused adopted a unique modus operandi and created bogus PF accounts in the name of certain persons of closed companies, showed credits of approx.Rs.2 lakh to 4 lakh against each account and drew the amounts from these accounts by filing fake claims.

    It was also alleged that the claims were found to be settled to the members with bank accounts in different parts of country,” CBI spokesperson RC Joshi said Wednesday.

  • CBI forms new team to solve judge Uttam Anand murder case

    By IANS

    DHANBAD: In a key development in the murder case of Dhanbad judge Uttam Anand, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has changed the whole team who was probing the matter.

    The Jharkhand High Court had already expressed unhappiness over the probe and had rapped the federal probe agency for coming out with cell phone robbery angle in the case.

    SP Vishal Kumar of Special Crime Unit 2 of the CBI will now head the probe team. He will replace ASP Vijay Shukla who was leading the probe till now. The team was changed on January 22.

    The new team of the CBI officials on Wednesday visited the crime scene and inspected the whole spot for the first time. The previous team had already visited the site thrice.

    The team of federal probe agency reached Randhir Verma Chowk of Dhanbad at around 1.20 p.m. on January 26 and spent almost fifteen minutes at the crime scene.

    A double bench of Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court which is currently hearing the matter had said on the last hearing that why there was need of two time brain mapping of the accused. The bench in a harsh reply had even noted that “it seems that the CBI is trying to protect the accused”.

    In coming days the new team can once again visit the crime scene. It will also question Rahul Verma and Lakhan Verma, the two accused in the case. They have got court permission to question the accused between January 29 and 31.

    Uttam Anand, the judge of Dhanbad court on July 28 last year was on morning walk when he was murdered. He was hit with an autorickshaw due to which he suffered severe injuries and later died during the course of treatment. Initially, the matter was being probed by Jharkhand police. Later the CBI took over the investigation following the order of Jharkhand High Court. Two accused Rahul Verma and Lakhan Verma were arrested in this murder case. They have been chargesheeted by the CBI.

    The family of the judge has alleged that he was murdered because he was looking after sensational cases related to local mafia.

  • CBI botches up probe into 1996 cryptography equipment import case, accused acquitted

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: In a major embarrassment to the CBI, a special court has acquitted businessman Harish Gupta who was accused of attempting to import an encryption system from Siemens in Germany in 1995 on the basis of forged certificate of the National Security Guard (NSG), calling it a “botched up probe”.

    In a series of terse remarks, the court pointed out that the matter involved “serious threat to the safety and security of the nation” which needed “deeper investigation”, but it appears that the investigation officer (IO) “did not make even a shallow investigation”.

    “It appears that IO has purposefully not made an investigation either on his own or at the behest of some higher-up and thus, the possibility cannot be ruled out that all these were done to save the skin of the real culprit or maybe of the present accused, if at all he was involved,” Special Judge Harish Kumar said, acquitting Gupta from the charges of forgery.

    On a warm April afternoon in 1996 when the country was in the middle of parliamentary elections, NSG Squadron Commander Vimal Satyarthi received a letter from the Belgium Embassy asking him to reissue the end user certificate for the import of encryption equipment from Siemens NV, Germany.

    The equipment was only sold to law enforcement agencies of a country and Satyarthi had not issued any end user certificate for interception equipment which he was being asked to re-issue.

    The letter sent alarm bells ringing in the security establishment as the Belgium Embassy communique meant that someone was attempting to import the equipment with the help of forged end user certificate, dated December 18, 1995, purportedly issued by Satyarthi.

    The NSG carried out an internal enquiry following which its then Director General AK Tandon wrote to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) flagging the matter on May 9, 1996.

    Then-Joint Secretary in Union Home Ministry UK Sinha enclosed the copy of letters from Tandon, that of the Embassy of Belgium with end user certificate, and handed over the probe to the CBI on May 28, 1996 to undertake “thorough enquiry in view of its seriousness and damaging ramification”.

    The CBI started a preliminary enquiry nearly two months later which was followed by an FIR on October 12, 1996.

    During the probe, Satyarthi told the CBI that the NSG had received a letter from the then Joint Secretary in the External Affairs Ministry ESL Narsimhan, who later became Governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, addressed to the Intelligence Bureau with a copy marked to the MHA and NSG, that one Harish Gupta of Secure Telecom Pvt.Ltd. had in fact tried to import the equipment using a forged certificate and this equipment may be used by the national security agencies of different governments.

    The CBI claimed that Gupta was dealing in import of counter-surveillance equipment with his clientele involving government agencies like Narcotics Control Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, NSG, etc.

    The CBI alleged Gupta had attempted to import two encryption systems — T1285 CA including Key Generation Program CGP 2002 and Crypto Fill Device CED 2001 — from Siemens, for which end user certificate from a government law enforcement agency was needed.

    According to the CBI charge sheet filed on September 1998, Gupta allegedly forged the certificate to show it was purportedly issued by Satyarthi of the NSG and submitted it to Siemens.

    During the trial, 11 witnesses were produced by the CBI, including Narsimhan when he was the Governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, then Joint Secretary in MHA UK Sinha and senior officers of the NSG.

    Nearly 22 years after filing of the charge sheet, the trial court acquitted Gupta from charges of cheating (420 IPC) but convicted him of forgery (468 IPC) on December 22, 2021 and sentenced him to undergo sentence of three years with a fine of Rs 10,000.

    Gupta filed an appeal before the special CBI judge who acquitted him from the remaining charge of forgery and set aside his conviction.

    Acquitting Gupta, the special court noted that the CBI investigation officer, Akhil Kaushik, had not recorded statement of any of the witnesses of the CBI under Section 161 of the CrPC, except for that of Satyarthi.

    On how the name of Gupta cropped up, the court noted that except from a letter from Narsimhan having “hearsay reference” about Gupta using a forged end user certificate, there was nothing on record to show how the CBI concluded that the forgery was done by the businessman.

    The investigation officer did not make any investigation either from the Embassy of Belgium or from Siemens and did not even meet and record statement of Narsimhan whose letter had hearsay reference about the involvement of Gupta, it said.

    “Besides hearsay reference in the letter…, there is nothing on record showing how IO based his conclusion that it was Harish Gupta who attempted to import the above two systems and in the process forged end user certificate and sent them to Siemens NV,” it said.

    The judge marked a copy of the judgment to the CBI Director “to initiate appropriate action as per rules if he in his wisdom consider necessary, not only against the erring investigating officer but also against the then forwarding officer who forwarded the charge-sheet, if both or any of them is still in service; and also for taking steps to improve the quality of investigation by CBI’s official if needed by imparting adequate training”.