The government-backed IDBI Bank Limited, a private entity, has revealed three different figures of alleged loans defaulted by a well-known diamantaire group, surprising banking and diamond industry circles.
The IDBI Bank Limited said that the company, Sanghavi Exports International Pvt Ltd, an NPA with the bank, plus other group entities and its promoters/directors/guarantors, only has a current principal outstanding of Rs 16.72 crore and the "account is fully provided" with action taken to recover the dues.
On December 20, IANS reported that the diamantaire group had allegedly defaulted on loans worth around Rs 6,710 crore, while on December 21, the bank issued a fresh public notice stating that the outstanding amount from the same group was around Rs 67.13 crore.
"The outstanding amount has been wrongly published on 19-12-2021. Notice of default with correct outstanding is published," said the new public notice on Tuesday, referring to the IANS report of December 20.
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The IDBI Bank revealed three contradictory figures of outstanding amounts within a span of 72 hours, "raising questions over which is the real figure", said banking expert and All India Bank Officers Association leader, Vishwas Utagi.
"This is outrageous... A big bank backed by the Centre and LIC cannot make such blunders, with the upcoming LIC IPO. They must clarify which of the three outstanding amount figures is genuine? If indeed any recoveries are made, they must publicly state when, how much, and into which account," Utagi demanded.
Slamming the "confusion" and differing statements, Shiv Sena's Bhartiya Kamgar Sena GS, Dr Raghunath Kuchik, the Minister of State, asked how -- under such circumstances -- the government can think of going ahead with the LIC IPO.
"For years, the LIC has been taking care of organised-unorganised labour. I urge the Centre not to put the common man's money, savings, and confidence into jeopardy till this issue of the IDBI Bank-diamantaire group is properly probed and resolved," said Dr Kuchik, who is the Maharashtra Minimum Wages Board Chairman.
Interestingly, the public notices of December 19 and December 21 also clearly mention the outstanding foreign currency component -- US$ 161088 -- which does not appear in the SEBI declaration made by the IDBI Bank.
The bank's SEBI filing stated that "the account is fully provided", while the two public notices have warned the masses against any kind of dealings with the properties of the promoters/directors/guarantors as huge dues are to be recovered from them.
IDBI Bank Limited's spokesperson and its official communication agency did not respond to a questionnaire sent on December 20 by IANS.
One of the group's members, Aagam Sanghavi -- who is named by the IDBI Bank Limited in its public notices -- also strongly denied the bank's figures of default (December 19 public notice), and a woman belonging to the family, who declined to reveal her identity, contended that the amount in the public notice (December 19) was a "typo" and warned of legal consequences.
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