CBI opposes bail pleas in IDBI – Vijay Mallya scam

January 31, 2017 | Published by : Avinash Nandakumar

Supreme Court to hear SBI - led consortium's plea against Vijay Mallya.

Mumbai, Jan 31: The CBI on Monday opposed the bail pleas of the nine accused arrested in the alleged Rs 900-crore scam involving Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines. In the reply, copies furnished to the accused chargesheeted last week
The CBI said, “In view of the serious allegations of the accused, grave economic loss suffered by the public exchequer in the instant case, the high status and influence of the accused which could be used to derail the investigation of the case and to enable the investigate agency to complete the investigation in a fair manner, the petition may be dismissed in the interest of justice.” The bail applications will come up for hearing before special judge Hemant S Mahajan on Tuesday.

The CBI bank securities and fraud cell had in July 2015 registered a case of criminal misconduct and conspiracy against unknown IDBI officials showing undue favour to Kingfisher Airlines in disbursement of loans amounting to Rs 900 crore. The pleas include those filed by former CFO of Kingfisher Airlines A Raghunathan, ex-IDBI Bank chairman Yogesh Agarwal , bank’s former deputy managing directors O V Bundellu, B K Batra, two other former officials, S K V Srinivasan and R S Sridhar and the airline’s executives, Shailesh Borkar, A C Shah and Amit Nadkarni. Last week, the special judge sent the accused to judicial custody until February 7.

The pleas include those filed by former CFO of Kingfisher Airlines A Raghunathan, ex-IDBI Bank chairman Yogesh Agarwal , bank’s former deputy managing directors O V Bundellu, B K Batra, two other former officials, S K V Srinivasan and R S Sridhar and the airline’s executives, Shailesh Borkar, A C Shah and Amit Nadkarni. Last week, the special judge sent the accused to judicial custody until February 7.

The reply copierther state that though the chargesheet has been filed, the contours of the deeper conspiracy to cheat the IDBI Bank and others is yet to be unfolded. “The investigations of the case involves examination of large number of witnesses spread across different strata of society and collection of large number of documents, both within India and abroad,” one of the reply copy reads. The CBI feared that the accused will scuttle the investigations by influencing witnesses and delay the production of vital documents. The witnesses, the CBI said include those belonging to the fields of banking, government and private sectors.

The CBI alleged in the chargesheet that the conspiracy to cheat IDBI Bank was hatched in the later half of 2009, when absconding accused Mallya met Agarwal and other senior level officers and availed short term loans of Rs 150 crore and Rs 200 crore and a corporate loan of Rs 750 crore. “The accused bank officers abused their official positions as public servants and sanctioned the loan to Kingfisher Airlines despite poor financials, negative net worth and despite the fact that the company had incurred huge losses in the preceding years and had deliberately omitted to pay TDS collected from its employees and service providers,” the CBI submitted.

The chargesheet includes sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) of IPC and section 13(1)(D) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act which deal with abuse of official position as a public servant for pecuniary advantage and criminal misconduct. The maximum punishment attracted is seven years in prison.

Tags: #bailpleas, #CBI, #IDBI, #Scam, #VijayMallya