Syndicate Bank CMD in CBI net

Took 50L for credit favours

The CBI on Saturday arrested Syndicate Bank Chairman-cum- Managing Director Sudhir Kumar Jain along with a Congress leader and proprietors of two leading private companies for indulging in corruption over sanctioning of financial proposals.

Jain, who completed one year as CMD of the bank, is said to have been on the CBI radar for the last six months before he was picked up from Bangalore on Saturday. The CBI has registered two cases against the CMD of the Manipal-headquartered public sector bank.

In one FIR, Jain has been accused of accepting a bribe of Rs 50 lakh for granting credit extension to a company that had defaulted on payment of loan instalments amounting to crores of rupees.

The CBI said it has recovered about Rs 21 lakh in cash, gold worth Rs 1.68 crore, fixed deposits worth Rs 63 lakh from the premises of Jain. Twenty places across four cities — Delhi, Bhopal, Mumbai and Bangalore — were searched by the sleuths, who claimed to have recovered credible evidence.

“We are determined to fight corruption in high places and today’s case is one such example,” CBI Director Ranjit Sinha told PTI. The CBI rounded up Jain in Bangalore after picking up his conduits — Madhya Pradesh Congress legal cell chief Vineet Godha and his brother Punit — while accepting Rs 50 lakh from businessman Vijay Pahuja. 

The sleuths suspect that the bribe amount was routed through illegal hawala channels so that it could be made available in the Madhya Pradesh capital. 

The two brothers are believed to be related to Jain, and would allegedly act as middlemen to scout for lucrative deals for him. Both were produced before CBI special court in Bhopal and handed over to the CBI on transit remand so that they could be produced in a Patiala House court here. CBI sources said a total of 11 persons have been booked in the two cases. 

They include, Bhushan Steel vice chairman Neeraj Singhal, proprietors of Prakash Industries—Ved Prakash Agarwal and Vipul Agarwal, Congress leader Vineet Godha and his brother Punit, Vijay Pahuja, Purshotam Lal Totlani, Pawan Bansal and Pankaj Bansal.

They have been booked under various sections of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and the Indian Penal Code.

The CBI charged that Jain was seeking “illegal gratification directly as well as through middlemen for extending undue favour to private companies by sanctioning various financial proposals”.

Jain took over as the CMD of the bank on July 8 last year. Prior to that he was Executive Director of Bank of Baroda, a senior position he graduated to occupy in a career that began in 1987 with a stint with Dena Bank.