Friday, December 6, 2013

Loan Scam : SBI sends Deputy MD on leave, sets up internal probe

State Bank of India (SBI) has asked its Deputy Managing Director and Group Executive (mid-corporate) Shyamal Acharya, who is under investigation in a bribery case, to proceed on leave and set up an internal committee to probe the matter.

Acharya has been named by the CBI along with former SBI assistant general manager KK Kumarah and Piyoosh Goyal, chairman of Worlds Window Group in a graft case involving a Rs 400 crore loan.

"We have been advised by CBI that Acharya is being investigated. SBI is co-operating with CBI. SBI has constituted an internal committee comprising two senior managing directors to investigate internally," SBI said on Monday.

A Krishnakumar and Hemant Contractor are the two senior most MDs at the bank.

CBI's Economic Offences Wing in Mumbai has already registered a case against Acharya — one of the 12 Deputy MDs, Kumarah, Goyal and "other unknown officials of SBI and private persons".

In SBI, corporate loans above Rs 500 crore need the approval of the MD and loans are vetted by four committees depending on the size. While loans above Rs 75 crore will have to be cleared by one of the committees in the head office, the executive committee and the full board committee take decisions on mega loans and sensitive projects.


In this case, the mid-corporate committee, allegedly influenced by Acharya, might have cleared the Rs 75 crore loan, sources said.

Kumarah has been arrested and remanded to police custody till November 27. Acharya is yet to be arrested.

In a detailed statement, CBI said, that Goyal had applied for Rs 400 crore corporate loan amongst others to SBI. Kumarah, an advisor to the company approached Acharya for getting it sanctioned. "The Deputy MD allegedly influenced his office to process the loan application of the company and got the loan of Rs 75 crore sanctioned," CBI said.

After the loan was sanctioned, the company allegedly gave Rs 25 lakh to Kumarah as reward and also gave him Rs 15 lakh for passing it on to Acharya. Kumarah allegedly purchased one Rolex wrist watch and one Omega wrist watch worth Rs 7.75 lakh and presented them to Acharya at his office.

"After delivery of the wrist watches, the advisor was apprehended by CBI and the two wrist watches were also recovered from the office cabin of the Deputy MD," CBI said.

CBI said it recovered cash of Rs 7 lakh, locker keys and other incriminating documents from the residence of Kumarah. Gold and jewellery worth Rs 67 lakh, locker keys, documents pertaining to investments in FD and other incriminating documents were recovered from the residence of Acharya. CBI also recovered cash of Rs15 lakh, jewellery and other documents from the residence of Goyal.

World's Window Impex India denied having paid a bribe to secure any facility. "We have not paid any bribe to anybody to secure any facility," Worlds Window Impex India said in a statement. (With PTI)
Courtesy:
Express News Service : Mumbai, Tue Nov 26 2013, 02:04 hrs
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sbi-sends-deputy-md-on-leave-sets-up-internal-probe/1199553/0

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