Rs 4,097-Crore Bank Fraud: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed its first chargesheet in the Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL) case against five former senior executives of the company for allegedly causing a loss of Rs 4,097 crore to a consortium of 13 public sector banks through diversion of funds. Two Reliance Group companies — Reliance Infrastructure Ltd and Reliance Home Finance Ltd (RHFL), have been named as accused in the chargesheet filed by the CBI.
The chargesheet names seven accused, including two Reliance Group companies, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. and Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL), along with five former senior executives of RCFL. They are Devang Pravin Mody, former Director and CEO; Ravindra Somayajula Rao, former Director; Dhananjay Bhagwanprasad Tiwari, former Director; Rajesh Krishnamoorthy, former Executive Risk Officer; and Lav Chaturvedi, former Chief Risk Officer.
CBI said its investigation showed that the funds borrowed by RCFL were diverted through intermediary and conduit entities to various Reliance ADA Group companies, in violation of the terms and conditions governing such borrowings, thereby causing wrongful loss to the lending banks and corresponding wrongful gain to the accused persons and related entities. The CBI had registered the case based on complaints received from Bank of Maharashtra and other PSU banks of the consortium.
The total loss caused to 13 public sector banks is Rs 4,097 crore," a CBI spokesperson said. CBI has kept the investigation open into the alleged role of directors, entities and public servants involved in causing wrongful loss to the public sector banks and is likely to file supplementary chargesheets. The agency had earlier arrested former vice chairman of Reliance Capital Ltd Amitabh Jhunjhunwala, former CEO of RCFL Devang Pravin Mody, and former CFO of Reliance Captital Ltd Amit Bapna.
Jhunjhunwala and Mody are presently in judicial custody, while Bapna is in CBI custody, the spokesperson said. The officials said probe into the role of Jhunjhunwala and Bapna is still going on. Notably, the CBI has registered seven FIRs against Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom), RHFL, RCFL and Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL) on the basis of complaints received from various public sector banks and the LIC.
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