Suresh Bhatnagar and his two sons were sent to CBI custody till April 27. (Javed Raja)
Vadodara-based businessman Suresh Bhatnagar and his two sons, Amit and Sumit, who were arrested on Tuesday night in connection with Rs 2,654-crore bank fraud, had reportedly checked in as “Vermas” at a hotel in Udaipur, Rajasthan. The three, promoters of Diamond Power Infrastructure Limited (DPIL), had been evading arrest since March 26 when they were booked by the CBI for allegedly cheating a consortium of 11 banks “by falsification of accounts, creation of false documents, forgery of records etc”.
“The Bhatnagars had briefed the hotel staffs to inform them immediately if anyone comes asking for them. When the police team reached the hotel, the trio tried to escape but got caught,” officials of Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad said, adding that they were located through electronic surveillance. The CBI had earlier sought help from Gujarat ATS in locating the Bhatnagars who had gone into hiding after the special CBI court had rejected their anticipatory bail plea.
On Wednesday, the father-son trio were produced before the special court which remanded them to CBI custody till April 27. The CBI had sought 14 days of custody, arguing that the accused were absconding for the past 10 days and despite several notices they remained incognito following which non-bailable warrant was issued against them. The CBI has alleged that the company, which is engaged in manufacturing cables and other electrical equipment, fraudulently availed credit facilities from a consortium of 11 nanks, public and private both, since 2008, with an outstanding amount of Rs 2654.40 crore as on June 29, 2016.
“The company and its directors managed to get the term loans and credit facilities despite the fact that they were already appearing in the RBI’s Defaulters List and ECGC Caution List at the time of initial sanction of Credit Limits by the Consortium,” the CBI stated in a release. In its remand application, the CBI said that it wanted the custody of the accused to find out the “modus operandi adopted by the accused persons in the year 2011, in fraudulently projecting a turnover of Rs 2,197.60 crore to obtain enhancement in credit facilities from Rs 285 crore to Rs 480 crore for the year 2012”.
“The modus operandi adopted in order to cheat the consortium of banks by opening accounts in non-consortium banks in order to divert Rs 70 crore which should have been used to repay the consortium of banks to clear their outstanding dues and the modus operandi adopted in submitting bogus purchase amounting to Rs 500 crore against which CENVAT credit to the tune of Rs100.80 crore was availed fraudulently,” the application stated.
Opposing the CBI’s application for their custody, Bhatnagars’ lawyer Amit Nair told the court that one of the accused, Suresh Bhatnagar, is 80 years old and is suffering from age-related ailments and doesn’t hold director’s post in the DPIL anymore. “The company was not in the RBI defaulter’s list in the year 2008 as alleged in the FIR. The company had cleared all its bank dues on September 26, 2016 and had got NOCs from the earlier banks…” Dismissing the CBI’s charges as “baseless” “levelled with an aim to tarnish our image,” Bhatnagars claimed that “they were never a ‘fly by night’ company and never resorted to any task aimed at cheating the banks”.