EOW arrests two ex-bankers of Lakshmi Vilas Bank for defrauding Religare of Rs 729 crore
new delhi: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police has now arrested two former officials of Lakshmi Vilas Bank for alleged misappropriation of fixed deposit receipts of the Religare Finvest Limited which led to a wrongful loss of Rs 729 crore to the company. Police identified the accused as Pradeep Kumar (57) and Anjani Kumar Verma (48). They were holding senior positions in Lakshmi Vilas Bank and had allegedly colluded with erstwhile promoters of Religare Enterprises Limited (REL), police said.
Joint Commissioner of Police (EOW) OP Mishra said the complainant in the case, one Manpreet Singh Suri of Religare Finvest Ltd (RFL) had filed a complaint against Malvinder Mohan Singh, Shivinder Mohan Singh and their companies RHC Holding Ltd, Ranchem Pvt. Ltd and Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd (LVB) and its erstwhile directors and employees.
"It was alleged that in Nov 2016, RFL placed an amount of Rs 400 crore in two fixed deposits (FDs) with LVB. These FDs were created by RFL for short term tenor with the intention to keep them free from all and any encumbrance. Thereafter, in January 2017, RFL placed an additional amount of about Rs 350 crore in another couple of FDs with LVB," he said.
As per the police, like with the first two FDs, these two FDs were also created by RFL for short-term tenor with the intention to keep them free from all and any encumbrance. These were short-term FDs and were renewed by RFL from time to time till their maturity date in July 2017.
"However, on July 31, 2017, RFL was shocked to receive an email from LVB with the statement of accounts with respect to RFL's current account. RFL discovered that LVB had credited the proceeds of the FDs to RFL's current account and subsequently debited from RFL's current account a cumulative amount of Rs 7,23,71,50,920 without any prior intimation to RFL," police said.
Therefore, LVB and the other accused persons had come to an understanding for onward lending of RFL's funds. LVB would have made huge gains from such lending since it got the FDs, funds at 4.5 per cent interest rate and they had purportedly lent the money further at a 10 per cent interest rate. It is further alleged that LVB cheated RFL and misused its public shareholder money entrusted with LVB in its capacity as RFL's banker, thus causing wrongful loss to the complainant company to the tune of Rs 729 crores approximately.
During the investigation, grave irregularities and flouting of rules and regulations by officials of Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd in sanctioning of loans were noticed.
