A case was filed by the Economic Offences Branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Chennai, against a firm and seven persons on charges of cheating the State Bank of India, Secunderabad, of ₹8 crore by submitting documents that the bank has found later to be forged.
Besides the firm and its two partners, those accused include three advocates and two valuers on the panel of SBI. The case, in which the CBI said the suspected offence is of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery of valuable security, forgery for the purpose of cheating and using the forged documents as genuine, pertains to BNR Infra and Leasing, a partnership firm.
According to the SBI complaint, the company is into construction activity and had been banking with SBI since July 2011. The firm, represented first by B. Narasimha Reddy and later also by S. Bindusagar Reddy, both of whom have been named as accused, was sanctioned a cash credit facility of ₹ 2 crore and BG limit of ₹1 crore in July 2011 on the basis of a collateral security of open land measuring 16,490 sq yards in Kismatpur village, Rajendranagar Mandal. Subsequently, the cash credit limit was enhanced to ₹3 crore and further, by way of Asset Backed Loan Limit, to ₹8 crore.
The enhancement was sanctioned on the basis of the existing collateral security and an additional collateral security in the form of a residential open plot in Sitaram Nagar, Nerdemet. The limits availed by the firm were classified as non-performing asset in September 2015 with the outstanding loan amount of ₹ 8.20 crore. At the time of initiating action under the SARFAESI Act, the bank came to know that the collateral security documents mortgaged was not enforceable.
Ownership disputed
In his complaint, on behalf of the SBI, Bible House Branch, Secunderabad, Regional Manager M. Srinivasa Rao said it was found that a certificate purportedly issued by RDO of Chevella Division declaring an agricultural property, given as collateral, as non-agricultural land, was forged. As regard the second mortgaged collateral security, the bank has received a legal notice from another person disputing the ownership of Mr. Narasimha Reddy. The First Information Report has named advocates Nellutla Jagan, V. Narasinga Rao and D. Prabhakar Reddy as well as valuers N. Dattatreyudu and L. Kishore Chand, who at different points in time were on the panel of SBI, as accused for allegedly submitting false reports. The CBI EOB has intimated the XXI Additional Chief Metropolitan Magitrate Court in Nampally about the FIR.