BSE chief S Ravi named in Rs600 cr IDBI fraud; CBI launches raids

Among those named by CBI in its First Information Report are former Aircel promoter C Sivasankaran, the BSE’s Ravi, and the former chairman and managing director of the Bank of Baroda, P S Shenoy.

The officials whose residences were searched on Friday include Amita Narayan, the then CGM of the credit committee of the bank; R K Bansal, then member of the credit committee; S K Srinivasan, the then executive director; R S Vidyasagar, regional head ICG of IDBI; Bharat Pal Singh, then deputy managing director, and Medha Joshi, the head of the risk unit.

Ravi, according to the BSE website, is an independent director and chairman of audit committee of IDBI Bank, which is at the centre of controversy for issuing two loans to C Sivasankaran flouting rules and regulations. Shenoy was an independent director in IDBI Bank when the alleged irregularities took place.

In an FIR registered based on a complaint from the Central Vigilance Commission, the CBI has named 15 IDBI Bank officials who worked at senior levels between 2010 and 2014 when loans were sanctioned to the companies controlled by former Aircel promoter C Sivasankaran.

Managing director and CEO of Indian Bank Kishor Kharat, who was then the MD and CEO of IDBI Bank, his counterpart in Syndicate Bank Melwyn Rego (then deputy managing director in IDBI Bank), and then chairman-cum-managing director of IDBI Bank M S Raghavan have been named in the FIR.

Officials said the agency would soon question all the accused named in the FIR including Ravi, Rego, Kharat, and Raghavan. They have been charged with corruption, cheating and criminal conspiracy.

"It is alleged that the loans were granted to the companies by IDBI Bank at its highest decision-making level comprising the senior most management and even independent directors, disregarding the existing guidelines, instructions, and procedures," CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said.

Subsequently, various conditions were relaxed or all together ignored. This led to a loss of approximately Rs600 crore to the bank and the public exchequer, he said.

The case pertains to loans of Rs322 crore and Rs523 crore given to the companies of Sivasankaran, who was at the centre of Aircel-Maxis probe for alleging that then Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran had put pressure on him to sell his company to a Malaysian telecom tycoon, a case in which Maran brothers have been discharged by a special court.

The loans later turned non-performing assets or NPAs.