CBI books bank officers, GTIL in Rs 4,000-crore loan fraud case
New Delhi, Aug 22, 2023
The CBI has conducted searches at the office of GTL Infrastructure Ltd (GTIL) in Mumbai after registering an FIR against it and unidentified officials of banks in a loan-fraud case of more than Rs 4,000 crore, officials said on Tuesday.
The officials of 13 banks are under the agency's scanner for allegedly assigning Rs 3,224 crore dues of the company to an asset reconstruction firm for Rs 1,867 crore without attempting to secure their loans from collateral securities, they said.
They were part of the negotiations related to the outstanding loans of GTIL, the officials said.
The banks are Union Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Andhra Bank, Bank of India, Axis Bank, State Bank of India, United Bank of India and Dena Bank, they said.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered the case after a preliminary inquiry in which it surfaced that GTIL, promoted by Manoj Tirodkar, was engaged in the "business of passive telecom infrastructure sites capable of hosting multiple service providers", according to the FIR.
The officials said the searches were conducted at the company's office in Navi Mumbai recently.
The company had an outstanding loan of Rs 11,263 crore towards a consortium of 19 banks, they said.
In 2011, it expressed its inability to service interest and instalments on the credit facilities. The banks resorted to Corporate Debt Restructuring, which also failed, the FIR said.
The lender banks decided to invoke Strategic Debt Restructuring in 2016, in which out of the total loan of 11,263 crore, a debt of Rs 7,200 crore was converted into equity shares, leaving an outstanding amount of Rs 4,063 crore, which was payable by GTIL to the consortium, it said.
The inquiry found large-scale diversion of funds, the officials said and added that loan funds were channelised through different vendors that were related parties having common directors and addresses with GTIL.
These funds supplied to vendors (were not returned and later written off) allegedly found their way to investments in European Projects and Aviation Ltd or GTIL or its sister concern Chennai Network Infrastructure Ltd from 2011-14, the FIR said.
The lenders were facing unpaid debts to the tune of Rs 4,063 crore and they moved a proposal of selling them to Edelweiss Asset Reconstruction Company (EARC). This was opposed by Canara Bank and some other members of the consortium because no fresh valuation of hypothecated or mortgaged assets was done to justify the offer of 2,354 crore from EARC, it said.
The audited balance sheets of GTIL showed 27,729 telecom towers with a useful life of 35 years and if compared with a similar deal between ATC Telecom Infrastructure and Vodafone India Ltd, the value of these towers came to about 10,330 crore, the inquiry found.
"It is further revealed that despite the dissent of Canara Bank and some other members of the consortium, 79.3 per cent of the outstanding dues amounting to Rs 3,224 crore were assigned to EARC by 13 banks...for a consideration of Rs 1,867 crore causing huge wrongful loss to the banks," the CBI alleged in the FIR.
The agency alleged that on March 31, 2018, banks held 64.97 crore of GTIL equity comprising 1212.17 crore shares.
"Despite that, the banks did not choose to sell their equity in block deal or to adopt the procedure under SARFAESI Act to secure their loan from collateral securities that is plant and machinery having depreciated value of about Rs 7944.50 crore and instead, with malafide intention adopted the ARC (asset reconstruction company) route causing loss to themselves," it said.
[The Times of India]
