New Delhi: The CBI has questioned former chairman and managing director of ABG Shipyard Ltd Rishi Agarwal in connection with its probe into the Rs 22,848 crore alleged banking fraud, the biggest such case registered by the central agency, officials said Thursday. Agarwal was examined recently, the officials said without giving details of exact date of his examination. The CBI swung into action after registering the FIR on February 7 on a complaint filed by SBI on August 25, 2020.
The central probe agency has issued look out circulars against the accused in the case to prevent them from leaving the country, the officials said.
The agency has also named the then executive director Santhanam Muthaswamy, directors Ashwini Kumar, Sushil Kumar Agarwal and Ravi Vimal Nevetia and another company ABG International Pvt Ltd for alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and abuse of official position under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act, they said.
Immediately after filing the FIR, the CBI had conducted searches at 13 locations on February 12. Officials claimed they had received several incriminating documents, such as books of accounts of the accused borrower company, which was being scrutinised. The bank had first filed a complaint on November 8, 2019 on which the central investigation agency had sought some clarifications on March 12, 2020. The bank filed a fresh complaint in August that year. After "scrutinising" for over one- and-a-half-years, the CBI acted on the complaint, filing the FIR on February 7. Officials said there were the case was big with voluminous data and records as 28 banks were involved and needed verification before moving with an FIR.