CBI begins probe into fraud by LVB loanees

Apart from 31 borrowers, including 10 women, two dhal trading firms and 15 employees of storage facility Star Agri Warehousing & Collateral management Ltd, who gave false storage receipts as test certificates as genuine certifying that urad dhal is stored are now under CBI scanner.

The borrowers had availed credit facility under Lakshmi Commodity Power Scheme of the bank.

Believing the said receipts and certificates are genuine, Virudhunagar and Madurai branches of Lakshmi Vilas Bank released credit facilities to the tune of Rs 81.81 crore to the borrowers which was wrongly gained and misappropriated by the borrowers with others, a CBI FIR registered on Wednesday stated. The borrowers accounts became non-performing assets and complaints were lodged by the bank with district crime branches in Virudhunagar and Madurai police.

The case was later transferred to CBI by Madurai bench of Madras high court. CBI has registered case under various IPC sections including criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery for the purpose cheating and using forged documents or electronic records as genuine.

The high court in its order said that despite a positive direction issued to the additional SP of police, Virudhunagar to arrest the two prime accused the case, the officer appeared before the court and expressed his inability to arrest them for reasons, which ae not acceptable to this court.

The officer told the court that criminal case was not registered against the suspects and they were not appearing for enquiry. “When a direction was issued by this court to arrest the accused and to report after finding that the petitioner has been defrauded and the stake involved in more than Rs 70 crore, it is unfortunate to note that additional public prosecutor also states that the complaint does not disclose any cognizable offence,” the court, while ordering a CBI enquiry, noted.

The bank had extended credit facilities to individuals by accepting stock in trade as security and the bank now found only bags of husks instead of dhal. The brain behind the scam is two men named Siva and Surulivel, partners pf Selvarani Dhal Industries and others are all name lenders, the court had observed.