CBI books Transstroy for Rs 7,926 crore bank fraud

The allegation against the infra firm and its directors is that they availed credit facilities on several banking arrangements

The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case of bank fraud to the tune of Rs 7,926 crore on the Hyderabad based Transstroy (India) Limited.

The alleged swindling is said to be one of the biggest banking scams in the country, compared to the embezzlement by diamantaires Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.

The CBI case was registered against Transstroy's CMD Cherukuri Sridhar, and additional directors Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, Akkineni Satish based on a complaint from the Canara Bank.

Rayapati, hailing from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, is a former Lok Sabha MP.

Transstroy was earlier involved in the execution of the Polavaram project on river Godavari.

The allegation against the infra firm and its directors is that they availed credit facilities on multiple banking arrangements.

“The consortium was formed with other banks, led by Canara Bank. It was further alleged that the accused had been involved in falsification/fabrication of books of accounts, fudging of stock statements, tampering of balance sheets, round-tripping of funds etc,” the CBI said in a statement on Friday.

The CBI has conducted searches at the premises of the private company and the accused persons in Hyderabad and Guntur, “which led to recovery of incriminating documents.”

“It was also alleged that the accused have misappropriated bank’s funds and diverted the loan amount sanctioned by the banks and caused a loss of Rs 7926.01 crore approximately to Canara Bank and other member banks,” the central investigative agency said.

CBI stated that the account had become an NPA and the fraud was reported. “Investigation in the case is going on,” CBI officials said.

According to the Transstroy website, the National Company Law Tribunal, Hyderabad bench had ordered the commencement of the corporate insolvency resolution process against the company from October 2018.

Transstroy states Cherukuri as the “overall in charge of corporate affairs and finance” and that his “competent leadership and industry network have transformed the company from a small proprietary business into a professionally managed entity with a brand value in the infrastructure sector in India.”