A lockdown/holiday court on Friday granted temporary bail to Hari Sankaran (58), former vice-chairman, and Ramesh Bawa (66), former managing director and chief executive officer of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) Financial Services Ltd (IFIN), on health grounds in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Sankaran and Mr. Bawa were arrested by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) in April 2019 in connection with IL&FS case for alleged irregularities.
While special public prosecutor opposed their bail, Judge P.R. Sitre perused their medical record and granted them bail for 75 days on a personal bond of ₹30,000. The court also asked them to surrender once the bail term was over and asked them to deposit their passport with the investigating officer.
Considering the spread of novel coronavirus, ill-health and their old age, the two had sought for interim bail before the special court last week through separate applications.
While granting bail, the court noted, “on perusal of document on record, it appears that the applicants are suffering from various diseases and are also of old age. Considering the prevailing situations of COVID 19 in the country and the stage of investigation, temporary bail is allowed.”
SFIO, following their arrest, had claimed that IFIN extended loans to external parties, many of which had already begun defaulting. This included loans given to Siva Group, apart from those given to its own group of companies. The agency claimed that the top management knew of the probable stress because of the loan defaults. The IFIN management adopted “fraudulent practices” to not let these loans or credit facilities be classified as non-performing assets, violating many guidelines set by the central bank, SFIO stated in the complaint.
IFIN also resorted to fresh lending to various group companies, either directly or through another group companies to repay the earlier loans and prevent defaults, SFIO claimed.
According to the agency, none of these companies, which were used for onward landing, had started operations and did not have any upcoming projects.
SFIO further stated that IFIN’s lending to its group companies increased significantly from the financial year 2012-13 and more than doubled to around ₹5,200 crore — 37% of the total loan and advances in 2017-2018.
