Officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Sanjay Kumar, managing partner of the Ghanshyamdas Gems and Jewels, here on Thursday, based on a complaint of fraud lodged on behalf of the State Bank of India (SBI). Sanjay allegedly availed of credit facilities running into hundreds of crores of rupees from the bank by providing fake collateral securities.
According to the complaint lodged by Farooque Shahab, General Manager, Network-1 of SBI's local head office in October last year, Sanjay first sought a loan of Rs.6 crore on behalf of the jewellery firm in June, 2010 under the Metal Gold Loans Scheme of SBI.
As collateral security, he allegedly produced bank guarantee for Rs.7 crore purportedly issued by the Hyderabad Circle Office of the Punjab National Bank (PNB).
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A letter addressed to the PNB was faxed from the SBI head office seeking confirmation of the guarantee. However, it was sent to a fax number other than the one available with the bank as part of regular transactions. While it is yet unclear as to who had sent the fax, it received a prompt confirmation of the bank guarantee. Accordingly, 30 kilograms of gold was delivered to an authorised representative of Sanjay.
In March, 2011, the bank received another application from Sanjay seeking enhancement of the credit facilities to Rs.30 crore under the scheme. This time, a signed confirmation for bank guarantee worth Rs.23 crore was received unsought, purportedly from the PNB Circle Office.
Accordingly, 101 kilograms of gold was delivered to Sanjay's emissary.
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The process was repeated a third time when Sanjay applied for further enhancement of credit facilities to Rs.60 crore in April last. The loan was sanctioned against a collateral of Rs.30 crore, again purportedly issued by PNB. This time, 119 kilograms of gold was delivered.
Another guarantee for Rs.12 crore was produced by Sanjay in August 2011, when SBI advised him to increase the amount of security. However, the bluff was called when an SBI employee tried to seek confirmation using the PNB's genuine fax number available with the bank. The PNB officials responded with a denial and said that the bank had never issued any guarantees at the behest of the firm in favour of SBI.
Cases were registered against Sanjay as well as the SBI officials whose involvement is suspected.