₹73cr bank fraud: ED raids properties of liquor contractor

Ludhiana: Several teams of the Enforcement Directorate’s zonal office in Jalandhar on Tuesday raided 10 properties of a prominent liquor contractor of Ludhiana, Charanjit Bajaj (owner of M/S Channi Bajaj), and his associates in connection with a Rs 73.41 crore bank fraud case.
The raids that started early on Tuesday were conducted at residential and commercial premises located in Sarabha Nagar, Janpath, Model Town Extension and Urban Estate. Huge cache of documents, some cash were seized in the raid. The ED officials, accompanied by paramilitary force, raided the premises simultaneously.
Sources said the ED raid is a fallout of the 2019 CBI case registered against company ‘Pure Milk Products’, owned by Bajajs. This company had allegedly committed Rs 73.41 crore fraud with State Bank of India on the basis of which CBI had registered an FIR against Bajajs, some public servants and others.
In the complaint filed with CBI in September 2019, the SBI officials had said, “The fraud committed by accused (Charanjit Bajaj) and his wife both of whom are guarantor and director of company Pure Milk Products came to light when forensic auditor of the bank submitted his report on November 22, 2018, disclosing that the accused had siphoned off funds by misutilising the term loans by making payments to non existing/paper firms/companies and not purchasing any fixed assets. The accused had also fudged books of accounts to enjoy higher credit facilities. The company of accused was in the business of milk, butter, cream, ghee, cheese, malted milk etc. Total loans sanctioned to the company were Rs 62.13 crore and total outstanding of company as on October 31, 2019 was Rs 60.74 crore and accrued interest from date of NPA till October 31 was Rs 32.54 crore, total liabilities of company towards bank is Rs 93.28 crore.”
SBI officials had further alleged, “Against these dues, the value of securities available to bank is Rs 19.87 crore, hence bank’s loss was Rs 40.87 crore in principal component and Rs 32.54 crore as interest component. Accused persons have falsified the accounts, forged documents not only to get the facilities sanctioned from the bank but they have further used the forged and fabricated documents to siphon off funds under specific instance of fraud and they have defrauded bank by not purchasing the assets for which loan was taken.”