CBI books Rotomac Global in fresh case of Rs 93cr bank fraud

PTI, Sep 20, 2022, 7:44 PM IST

Image credit: AFP / file photo

The CBI on Tuesday registered a fresh FIR against Kanpur-based Rotomac Global for allegedly cheating Punjab National Bank to the tune of over Rs 93 crore through loan default, officials said.

The central agency has also named the company’s directors Rahul Kothari and Sadhna Kothari as accused in the case registered under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy and cheating, and provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, they said.

The CBI has alleged that directors Vikram Kothari (now deceased) and Rahul Kothari, along with others, acted with ”dishonest intention” to defraud the bank by presenting wrong and false statements for book debts, stock statements and other financial papers.

The accused projected fake transactions as genuine, knowing fully well that they are thereby causing wrongful loss to the bank, thereby cheating the bank and the public at large, the FIR by the CBI said.

Rotomac group companies are already facing two separate CBI investigations related to bank fraud of Rs 3,695 crore in a consortium of seven banks and Rs 806.75 crore in Bank of India, the officials said.

The credit facilities were sanctioned by Oriental Bank of Commerce, now amalgamated in PNB, in 2013. The loan account was declared a non-performing asset on June 30, 2016 and later categorised as fraud.

It is alleged that the company perpetrated the fraud on the bank by frequently indulging in ”accommodatory transactions” commonly referred as ‘hawala’ transactions, diversion of funds and by submitting self-house generated ‘Bill of Landings’ from a company having no mention of any address, contact, etc. The agency has said the actions of the accused have resulted in ”wrongful pecuniary loss” of Rs 93.53 crore to the PNB.