CBI arrests 3 for Rs 2,654 cr bank fraud

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested three promoters of Vadodara-based Diamond Power and Infrastructure Limited (DPIL), in a case pertaining to defrauding 11 public and private sector banks of over Rs 2,654 crore.

The three promoters Suresh Narain Bhatnagar, founder of DPIL; Amit Bhatnagar, managing director and Sumit Bhatnagar, joint managing director were picked up from a private hotel in Jaipur on Tuesday night. They were taken to a government hospital in Gandhinagar for medical tests and later produced before a special CBI court in Ahmedabad.

The three had been on the run since March 26, when CBI registered a case on allegations of cheating the banks by falsifying accounts, creating false documents and forgery of records. The CBI, Enforcement Directorate and Income-Tax departments later raided several premises of the company and those of the promoters.

As per the FIR filed by CBI, DPIL had fraudulently availed credit facilities from a consortium of 11 banks since 2008, leading to an outstanding debt of Rs 2,654.40 crore as of June 29, 2016. The company’s accounts were declared Non Performing Assets (NPA) by Bank of India and Bank of Baroda on February 16, 2016, while other banks declared its accounts as NPA from December 2017.