The closed Rotomac factory in Kanpur. (Express Photo/Vishal Srivastav)
The CBI on Monday filed its first chargesheet against Kanpur-based pen manufacturer Rotomac Global Pvt Ltd in an alleged bank loan fraud worth Rs 3,690 crore. The chargesheet has been filed against the company, its owner Vikram Kothari, his son Rahul and three bank officials, said sources.
The first chargesheet has been filed in connection with an alleged loan default of Rs 456.63 crore towards Bank of Baroda, which is part of the total default of Rs 3,690 crore in loans availed from a consortium of seven banks, sources said. Vikram, the company’s Chairman and Managing Director, and Rahul, the director, are in jail since they were arrested on February 22.
Read | Who is Vikram Kothari?
The CBI filed the chargesheet at a special court in Lucknow after a three-month probe. Besides the company and its owners, the agency has chargesheeted then AGM of Bank of Baroda S K Upadhyay, then Senior Manager Om Prakash Kapoor, and then Bank Manager Shashi Bishwas, CBI sources said.
The chargesheet has been filed under IPC section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (Forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (Using as genuine a forged 1 [document or electronic record] ) and also prevention of Corruption Act, said CBI spokeperson R K Gaur.
Rotomac owner Vikram Kothari
“Investigation revealed that said private company represented by its CMD and others had entered into criminal conspiracy to defraud Bank of Baroda to the tune of Rs. 456.63 crore (approx). The loss was allegedly caused due to misutilization of export packing credit limit and devolvement of FLCs,” a CBI statement said.
A consortium of seven nationalised banks gave loans worth Rs 2,919 crore to Rotomac Global Pvt Limited from 2008 onwards. The amount swelled to Rs 3,695 crore, including the accrued interest, because of repeated defaults, officials said. The principal exposure of the banks is Bank of India (Rs 754.77 cr), Bank of Baroda (Rs 456.63 cr), Indian Overseas Bank (Rs 771.07 cr), Union Bank of India (Rs 458.95 cr), Allahabad Bank (Rs 330.68 cr), Bank of Maharashtra (Rs 49.82 cr) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (Rs 97.47 cr).