CBI books R P Info Systems for Rs 515 cr fraud

The CBI has booked a computer manufacturer R P Info Systems and its directors for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore, and carried out searches at six locations in Kolkata today, officials said. It is alleged that the directors of the company, Shivaji Panja, Kaustuv Ray and Vinay Bafna, and its vice president Canara Bank and nine other consortium member banks to the tue of Rs 515.15 crore. The CBI today carried out searches at the residence of all the accused and the corporate office in Kolkata, they said. It is not the first time that the company has had a brush with law as the CBI had booked it in 2015 for cheating IDBI bank, once a leader of the consortium before relinquishing the position in 2013, to the tune of Rs 180 crore. The other members of the bank were State Bank of India, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur and State Bank of Patiala (both now part of the CBI), Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Patiala and Federal Bank. It is alleged that loans were taken on the basis of false and fabricated documents. The bank in its complaint on February 26, now part of the FIR, has alleged that the company which manufactured computers with brand name Chirag had taken funds from the consortium from time to time from 2012 onwards. These loans have become NPA, it said, The banks alleged that company manipulated financial statements and did not route sale proceeds through the loan account. The agency had booked the company and its directors in 2015 in connection with the case related to IDBI.

But in the FIR, the agency had only focussed on the exposure to IDBI bank which was over Rs 180 crore. "During 2013, IDBI Bank relinquished their position as consortium leader after the deliberations with RBI. It is learnt that in the month of December 2013, IDBI Bank lodged a complaint regarding the fraud committed on their bank alone to the CBI and the CBI investigated only their exposure of IDBI Bank," the latest complaint from Canara Bank said.

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