Nagpur: City’s famous business honcho Manoj Jayaswal, the eldest son of Basantlal Shaw of NECO and his son Abhishek Jayaswal have been arrested by sleuths of Central Bureau of Intelligence team in Kolkata on Monday night at 10:30 pm. The father-son are the promoters of a major mining company Abhijeet Group. Both of them have been arrested along with a former DGM of Canara Bank for allegedly causing a loss to Rs 290 crore to the bank.
Investigation has indicated that it is a “large-scale scam” in which 13 companies of Abhijeet Group took loans from over 20 banks and financial institution which allegedly turned into non-performing assets since 2014 resulting in outstanding loans of Rs 11,000 crore, CBI sources claimed.
Confirming the news of arrest CBI spokesperson RK Gaur said, “The agency has arrested promoters of Abhijeet Group Manoj Jayaswal and Abhishek Jayaswal and T L Pai, a former DGM of Canara Bank for defrauding in Canara and Vijaya banks of Rs 290 crore.”
Today's Rate
Wed 18 Dec. 2024
The agency had registered a case in 2015 against the accused for alleged criminal conspiracy and cheating.
An alleged loss to the tune of Rs 218.85 crore (approx) to Canara Bank and Rs 71.92 crore (approx) to Vijaya Bank was caused, the CBI had said after filing the FIR.
The agency had acted on the complaint of both the public sector banks alleging that the accused perpetrated fraud of Rs 290.77 crore (approx) by fraudulently availing line of credit facility during the 2011-13 period, it had said.
Their group company Abhijeet Power is already under scanner for allegedly illegal Coal block allotment during UPA-2 regime.
In fact, his group figured most prominently in the allotment of coal blocks that left many an industrial house bruised. Jayaswal was keen on setting up a 240 MW power plant, Abhijeet Mihan Nagpur Energy, to exclusively supply electricity to the Mihan-Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The project never took off after it ran into a dispute with the Maharashtra Airport Development Company, the entity in charge of developing the SEZ.
In 2015 he was booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation for cheating and misrepresenting facts by inflating the net worth of his group companies to make them eligible for the lucrative coal blocks. Lenders to the power project had to take a hit when the entire loan book was sold to a group of asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) in October 2015.
In 2005 the group came into being and since then, has seen a meteoric rise. It is alleged that Jayaswal’s political connections helped him in moving swiftly from one industry into another. Starting with infrastructure and road projects, Jayaswal rapidly diversified into sectors such as power, ferro alloys, steel, cement and mining.
The cancellation of his coal blocks and the non start up of his Abhijeet Power plant were his undoing.
