Nagpur: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered yet another offence against Manoj Jayaswal in loan fraud case. Corporate Power Limited (CPL), the company promoted by him, has been charged with bank loan fraud of Rs 4,000 crore. The amount was lent by a consortium of 20 banks led by Union Bank of India. 12 other people have been booked along with him.
After registering a case of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery, criminal misconduct and corruption against Corporate Power Limited, Kolkata, causing losses of Rs 4,037.87 crore to the consortium of banks led by Union Bank of India, the CBI, on Friday, conducted searches at the office and residential premises of its accused directors and promoters Manoj Jayaswal, Abhishek Jayaswal, Abhijeet Jayaswal, Munnan Kumar Jaiswal and Arun Kumar Shrivastava in the city.
The loan was declared NPA by the lead bank in 2013 followed by other banks. The account was declared a fraud in October 2019.
The offence has been registered on the basis of a complaint filed by Union Bank of India. CPL is a company registered at Kolkata, however Jayaswal’s businesses were run from Nagpur. There was a delay in filing the complaint due to Covid-19.
According to the explanation, after Union Bank of India which is the lead financier declared the account as fraud in October 2019, it was decided that the banks would file a CBI complaint on behalf of all consortium lenders. Mandate from all other banks were called. Due to Covid-induced lockdown, there was a delay in getting information and filing a CBI complaint.
Jayaswal and others have been accused of submitting manipulated bank statements for availing the loans and also diverting the funds to a web of companies through dummy accounts.
The company’s name had surfaced in the coal block allocation scam of the UPA regime. The group was among the entities which had bagged the highest number of coal blocks through the allotment system which was later scrapped.
The CBI had conducted searches in Nagpur, Kolkata, Ranchi, Durgapur, Visakhapatnam, and Ghaziabad. Jayaswal is learnt to have shifted his base to Visakhapatnam these days.
The company had plans to set up a 540 MW power plant. According to the FIR, the fraud was declared after a forensic audit was conducted in the accounts.
