A look at some of the biggest bank fraud cases that hit India in a decade

Vijay Mallya fraud case, PNB scam and ABG Shipyard fraud case are some of the biggest scams that hit India in past few years

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) this week arrested Chanda Kochhar and her husband, Deepak Kochhar in relation to the Rs 3,000-crore Videocon Group loan scam. There were several other people also booked in the case under the relevant sections of IPC related to criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Here we take a look at the top 10 bank fraud cases that hit India in the past 10 years.

Vijay Mallya Fraud case

The King of Good Times, as Mallya was known as, is one of the biggest offenders when it comes to bank fraud. The businessman's now bankrupt. The Kingfisher Airlines owes more than Rs 10,000 crore to several banks, wih SBI, PNB and IDBI all loaning him money. Mallya fled India in early 2016. Out of the original loan of Rs 6,900 crore to Kingfisher, SBI had lent Mallya Rs 1,600 crore.

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The Punjab National Bank had Rs 800 crores, IDBI had Rs 650 crores, and the Bank of Baroda had Rs 550 crore. The banks had approached a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court which allowed them to sell certain real estate properties and securities belonging to Mallya to recover loans turned bad. The Indian government is trying to get Mallya to be extradited from the UK to India to face criminal proceedings.

Punjab National Bank scam

The Punjab National Bank scam was touted as India's biggest at Rs 11,400 crore and the main accused were jeweller Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Nishant Modi, Ami Modi and others, including some PNB staff. The scam involved 'letters of undertaking’ fraudulently issued by a junior official at the bank to get short-term loans from overseas bank branches to pay sellers and the transactions never registered with the bank, where officials also did not notice the fraud.

Also Read | CBI files three fresh FIRs against Mehul Choksi in Rs 6,700 crore fraud case

A CBI probe exposed the scam where the accused defrauded 30 Indian banks' foreign branches. Modi, Choksi fled India a couple days before the scam was made public. Modi, who was in prison in London had recently appealed against his extradition which has been denied.

Winsome Diamonds bank fraud

Businessman Jatin Mehta’s Winsome Diamonds fraudulently acquired letters of undertaking from Indian banks and the fraud was caught for the first time in 2014. Mehta and his wife Sonia and their sons Vipul and SurajIt fled India and have left a loan default amounting to almost Rs 7,000 crore. Over 10 cases have been filed against Mehta.

ABG Shipyard fraud case

The CBI charged ABG Shipyard Limited, its former chairman and managing director Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, Santhanam Muthaswamy, Ashwini Kumar, Ravi Vimal Nevetia, Sushil Kumar Agarwal, and another firm, ABG International Pvt Ltd for embezzling Rs 22,842 crore from SBI and 27 other lenders. The loan account was named as a non-performing asset in July 2016, and fraud was detected in 2019.

Kanishk Gold bank fraud

Kanishk Gold Pvt Ltd was charged by CBI for allegedly cheating 14 banks led by SBI out of Rs 824 crore. The owners have been accused of taking huge loans for business and were detrimnetal to the banks' rights and interests, the lawsuit said, according to media reports. ED in Chennai froze properties worth Rs 48 crore of Kanishk Gold Pvt Ltd udner the PMLA.
SBI has said security to cover the loss due to the fraud is around Rs 156 crore.

Andhra Bank fraud

Gujarat-based pharma company Sterling Biotech Limited was involved in the Andhra bank fraud case as 4 directors of the company were named defaulters in the Rs 8,100-crore bank scam. Nitin Sandesara, Chetan Sandesara, Dipti Sandesara and Hiteshkumar Narendrabhai Patel, were designated fugitives in the scam. The company has been accused of acquiring over Rs 5,000 crore in loans from a consortium led by Andhra Bank, which has since become non-performing assets.

Rotomac Pen Scam

Rotomac Global Private Limited of Kanpur, its promoter Vikram Kothari, and other directors were charged by the CBI of allegedly defrauding lenders for ₹ 750.54 crore. The company has a total outstanding of Rs 2,919 crore against a consortium of seven banks led by Bank of India. The bank had been providing the company with loans from 2002 and in 2015, the account was labelled as a non-performing asset (NPA). Kothari passed away early 2022 after an accident at home. He was arrested in connection with the case in 2018 and spent 2 yeas in jail, after which he was granted bail on health grounds.

Videocon Case fraud

FIR was filed against former ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar, her husband Deepak Kochhar, and Videocon group MD Venugopal Dhoot for alleged irregularities in loans the bank to the group back in 2012. The case pertains to the time when Kochhar was the CEO of ICICI and had loaned Rs 3,250 crore to Dhoot’s Videocon Group. A whistleblower, who owned shares in both the bank and the group, claimed that the loan to Videocon was influenced by Kochhar in exchange for a deal in NuPower Renewables and Supreme Energy, a clean-energy firm managed by Kochhar's husband.