5 brothers among 38 on CBI radar for Rs 26.5 cr bank fraud

The prime accused in all three cases is A Saravanan of Samaya Mineral & Ceramic. His brothers, A Kumar, A Sankar, A Senthil and A Elayaraja, too, figure in the CBI FIR.

The five brothers, along with other suspects, had availed loans from Indian Bank in 2017 for non-existing business by misleading the bank. The CBI has registered cases under IPC sections of criminal conspiracy, cheating, dishonesty, misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust by public servant/banker, forgery for the purpose of cheating, using forged documents as genuine, falsification of accounts and criminal misconduct.

In one of the FIRs, CR Pari, the suspended chief manager of Porur branch of the bank, figures as the accused, while two other FIRs cite unknown bank officials as suspects. It noted that internal investigation conducted by the bank found that the sanctioning authority M Radhakrishnan, another suspended chief manager, did not follow the laid down procedures and released the amounts in violation of norms governing the sanction and monitoring of facilities.

Saravanan was instrumental in establishing new partnership firms by inducting those who had immovable properties in their name but could not obtain loan from banks. He also identified people whose properties are mortgaged with financial institutions for lesser quantum of liabilities and in requirement of high quantum of credit, and brought them in as partners. These loans facilitated by Saravanan were utilised for investments in other activities.

Saravanan had allegedly helped these partners submit fake documents of assets and liabilities statements, fake importer–exporter code, fake lease agreement for godowns, office and cold storage to get the loan. The funds were diverted to different unrelated accounts that had no business relationship with the firm, the CBI FIR added.