Bengaluru firm under CBI lens over Rs 200 crore loan fraud

The CBI has registered a case against Bengaluru-based Steel Hypermart India Pvt Ltd and its directors on charges of loan fraud to the tune of Rs 200.38 crore and conducted searches at the premises of the accused.

The premier agency has named the company, its directors Mahendra Kumar Singhi, Suman Mahendra Kumar Singhi, Chartered Accountant Mukesh Surana and unknown public servants in connection with the case following a complaint filed by the Indian Bank.

Searches were conducted on Wednesday at the residential and official premises of the accused in Bengaluru and Shoolagiri in Tamil Nadu's Krishnagiri district during which investigators recovered several documents and other material evidence.

According to the CBI, the Steel Hypermart India Pvt Ltd availed credit facilities under a consortium of Indian Bank and e-Vijaya Bank (now Bank of Baroda) with Indian Bank as leader of the consortium during 2017-2019. It is alleged that the company defrauded the consortium of banks and caused a loss of Rs 200.38 crore. Of this, Rs 168.39 crore belonged to the Indian Bank and Rs 31.99 crore to the Bank of Baroda.

The account became a non-performing asset (NPA) on April 30, 2019 and it was reported as "fraud" on November 7,2019.

"The borrower company in order to avail higher working capital limits from the banks, had inflated its turnover, made purchase transactions with the related/sister concerns, inflation of receivables, diversion of fund within the related/sister concerns, submitted false/fudged accounts/statements, etc. and siphoned off the banks' funds, thereby causing loss to the said Banks," the CBI said in a statement.