J&K Bank: NPA irregularities happened under Nengroo

The Jammu and Kashmir Bank (JKB) had been trying inappropriately re-value properties mortgaged against various Non-Performing Assets (NPAs), under the watch of now sacked chairman Parvez Nengroo.

According to the documents accessed by DH, there has been a demand for an internal probe by multiple officers of the Bank, who had tried to raise probe requests in this regard with Ahmad, only to be ignored. In some of these cases, the accounts were handled by people seen very close to Nengroo.

After reports of wide-spread irregularities under his nose, anti-corruption bureau (ACB) sleuths conducted raids Saturday raided the Corporate office of the Bank in Srinagar, where they have seized some important records related to backdoor appointments and other irregularities in the premier financial institution of the state.

Several Bank officers, who didn’t wish to be named, revealed that there were multiple such cases and the honest officers in the Bank were haunted by now sacked Chairman for raising objections.

In one such case, an account based outside J&K state has been defaulter with Bank worth Rs 300 crore. In this case, according to an official order, accessed by DH, the Bank had dropped reliable securities against non-marketable securities in 2016. This had happened under the watch of Nengroo, when he was Executive President – Credit, before taking over as chairman, despite the objections raised by the legal wing of the Bank, they said.

As the bank tried to auction these properties, they couldn’t fetch any recovery for these securitised assets. There have been multiple requests raised by the officers of the Bank – both legal and recovery – only to be shuttled and ignore, the official communiqués reveal.

In one such case, a report in Jammu-based English daily revealed that under the watch of Nengroo, in March 2018, Bank sold two NPAs of two top business houses to an Asset Reconstruction Company (ARC) at a 40% discount which works around Rs 720 crores.

Both accounts, that went through bankruptcy proceeding under the National Companies Law Tribunal and fetched creditors almost full amount, had an exposure of Rs 1,700 crore to the Bank.

However, the Bank, in retaliation, filed the defamation suit worth Rs 50 crore against J&K RTI Movement, chief Raja Muzzaffer Bhat for publishing the story.

Besides, there are also reports of several defaulter Valley businessmen having diverted cores of borrowed money to Dubai and other Gulf countries despite the knowledge of now sacked chairman.

The state government owns 59% shares of J&K Bank. The Bank was incorporated in 1938 and is listed on the NSE and BSE.