ED registers case in Simbhaoli Sugars mill Rs 109 crore loan fraud case

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said it has registered a case against Simbhaoli Sugars' chairman Gurmit Singh Mann and others in connection with a Rs 109 crore loan default case.

According to the financial probe agency, the case was registered against Mann, CEO G.S.C. Rao, CFO Sanjay Tapriya, executive director Gursimran Kaur Mann and other company officials.

Besides, some more bank officials in connection with the alleged bank fraud involving the sugars mill and the Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) were also booked for money laundering.

The ED official said the agency has carried out searches on Wednesday in Uttar Pradesh's Hapur and Ghaziabad.

The ED officials said they have recovered some incriminating documents during the searches.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), earlier on February 22, had booked Gurpal Singh, son-in-law of Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and 12 others including Mann, Rao, Tapriya, executive director Gursimran Kaur Mann and other company officials along with some bank officials in connection with the same bank fraud.

According to the CBI officials, the bank sanctioned a loan amounting to Rs 148.60 crore in 2011 to the private company for financing individual, Joint Liability Groups, Self-Help Groups under the tie-up arrangement of the RBI Scheme to 5,762 sugarcane farmers supplying produce to said private company during the period from January 25 to March 13, 2012. 

It has been alleged that the company had diverted funds for personal use. The account turned Non-Performing Asset (NPA) on March 31, 2015, and was later declared as an alleged fraud by the bank to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on May 13, 2015, for a number of Rs 97.85 crore.

It was further alleged that in addition to the existing NPA as on March 31, 2015, the bank, under multiple banking arrangements, had sanctioned another corporate loan of Rs 110 crore to the sugar company on January 28, 2015, to pay its outstanding loan of Rs 97.85 crore, and adjusted the total liability of Rs 112.9 crore of said private company on June 30, 2016 by way of deposit of this new corporate loan.

The corporate loan, too turned into an NPA on November 29, 2016, thus resulting in its first outstanding loan of Rs 97.85 crore (as alleged fraud) and the corporate loan of Rs 109.08 crore (as fresh outstanding).