In its biggest investigation yet, the CBI has filed a complaint against Gujrat based ABG Shipyard Limited, its directors and others for allegedly duping a consortium of 28 banks. An FIR has been registered against those labelled accused of the scam of Rs 22,842 crore. The FIR states the forensic audit revealed the funds were used for unstated purposes and investments.
Among those named as accused in the First Information Report are Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, Santhanam Muthaswamy, Ashwini Kumar, Sushil Kumar Agarwal, Ravi Vimal Nevetia and ABG International Private Limited. The case has been registered on a complaint from the State Bank of India alleging criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and abuse of official position. According to a complaint by the State Bank of India, the company owes Rs 2,925 crore to the bank, Rs 7,089 crore to ICICI Bank, Rs 3,634 crore to IDBI Bank, Rs 1,614 crore to Bank of Baroda, Rs 1,244 to PNB and Rs 1,228 crore to IOB.
The alleged fraud is reported to have come to the fore after a forensic suit of the loan accounts transactions from April 202 to July 2017. It was in June 2019 the account was flagged as fraud. Following this, in the same year, it filed a complaint in November on which CBI had sought some clarifications on March 12, 2020. After scrutinizing for a year and a half the bank filed a fresh complaint to which the CBI reacted on February 7th.
ABG Shipyard, a flagship company of the ABG Group, is in the business of shipbuilding and repair. Promoted by Mr Rishi Agarwal, it is a major player in the Indian shipbuilding industry. Its shipyards are located at Dahej and Surat in Gujarat.