NEW DELHI, Dec 18: A Hyderabad-based company dealing in construction business has been booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks of Rs 7,926 crore, an amount even bigger than the fraud by diamond dealer Nirav Modi.
Official sources said the company, Transstroy (India) Ltd, which deals in construction of highways, bridges, irrigation projects, metro related work and is also in the business of oil and gas, is currently under liquidation process as per an order by National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in September 2019.
Apart from Transstroy and its CMD Cherukuri Shridhar Sridhar, the CBI has named as accused Rayapati Sambasiva Rao (additional director in the company) and Akkineni Sathish (additional director) in the FIR registered at its Bengaluru unit.
The agency teams on Friday carried out raids in Hyderabad and Guntur at the premises of accused persons and recovered documents related to the fraud, officials said.
The amount involved in the alleged Transstroy fraud was even higher than what fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi owes to banks in India. The 49-year-old is currently facing extradition proceedings and is lodged in a UK jail for owing some Rs 7,700 crore to Indian banks.
The CBI sources said Transstroy had availed credit facilities on multiple banking arrangements from consortium formed with other banks led by Canara Bank.
“It was further alleged that the accused had involved in falsification/fabrication of books of accounts, fudging of stock statements, tampering of balance sheets, round tripping of funds etc. It was also alleged that the accused misappropriated bank’s funds and diverted the loan amount sanctioned by the banks and caused loss of Rs 7926.01 crore (approx) to Canara Bank and other member banks. The account had become NPA (non performing asset) and the fraud was reported,” sources said.
Company representatives were not immediately available for comment on the CBI action. Reliable sources said the company officials could be absconding.
(Manas Dasgupta)
