CBI chargesheets CG Power, ex-promoter Thapar in Rs 2,435-cr fraud case

The CBI has filed a charge sheet against CG Power and Industrial Solutions and its former promoter Gautam Thapar in an alleged Rs 2435-crore bank fraud case that affected 12 banks, officials said.

This comes after the agency conducted a probe for nearly 19 months into the allegations of diversion of bank funds, and manipulation of account books among other charges against the company, Thapar and other senior executives, they said.

Thapar is already facing multiple probes into his alleged links with Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor who was booked by the CBI under corruption and fraud charges.

In its charge sheet filed before a special court, the CBI has alleged that huge amounts of bank loans were diverted by the accused to related parties for which adjustment entries were made in the account books, they said.

The investigations showed that the accused availed loans against securities without disclosing credit facilities availed from other banks, they said.

The accused borrowed funds "by misrepresentation and falsification of account books, entries and vouchers", the CBI spokesperson said.

The present case is based on a complaint from the State Bank of India (SBI), which had an exposure of 12.81 per cent in the default amount of Rs 2,435 crore, on behalf of the consortium of 11 other lender banks, including Yes Bank, which has the second highest exposure at 11.75 per cent.

The company, which has industrial and power systems facilities in India, Indonesia and Hungary, has been with the SBI since 1988.

On August 19, 2019, the company disclosed to the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange that its liabilities, advances to related parties, and net worth had been understated.

The company board had also stated that its assets were provided as collateral for enabling "ostensibly unrelated third parties" to get loans which were immediately routed out of the company.

Following the disclosures, the board through a majority decision removed Thapar as chairman and Venkatesh VR as CFO on August 29, 2019, the SBI complaint, now part of the FIR, said.

The banks also sanctioned a forensic audit of the company on September 27, 2019, which showed that its funds were transferred to group companies promoted by Thapar through a series of transfers to various firms.

The forensic audit done by the consortium brought out several anomalies forcing the lender banks to tag the account as fraud.

The industrial land of the company in Nashik and Kanjurmarg was purportedly provided as collateral for enabling unrelated parties to get loans without due authorisation, the forensic report alleged.

The Aditya Birla Finance gave a loan of Rs 150 crore to Blue Garden Estates Ltd on May 12, 2015, which had an advance of the same amount to CG Power and Industrial Solutions on the same day.

In the next six days, CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd advanced Rs 145 crore to Avantha Holdings of Thapar, which then advanced Rs 150 crore to BILT Graphics (a group company of CG Power) between May 13 to May 30, 2016, the report alleged.

This was utilised for repayment of commercial paper, it stated underlining Thapar's role in the fund transfer.

"Had the intention been genuine, the sale of the land situated at Nashik, belonging to CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd, the funds would have been retained in the company and would not have been transferred to the group companies? Therefore the entire transaction appears to be colourable transactions, not genuine transactions," it alleged.

The complaint said the forensic audit suspected the diversion of Rs 5,290 crore of company funds.

"It was alleged that the said accused had cheated SBI and other consortium member banks, including Bank of Maharashtra, Axis bank, Yes Bank, Corporation Bank, Barclays Bank, IndusInd Bank etc...," the CBI said in a statement.

It is alleged in the FIR that between 2015 and 2019, they allegedly cheated the banks by way of the diversion of bank funds and sham transactions with related parties.