State-run banks added Rs95,760 cr to frauds list in H1 FY20: FM
19 Nov 2019
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State-run banks in the country have added Rs95,760 crore ($13.34 billion) to the list of frauds in the first six months of the fiscal year 2019-20 ended 30 September 2019, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
The number of reported fraud cases touched 5,743 during April-September 2019-20 period.
“Government has taken comprehensive measures to curb the incidence of fraud in banks,” Sitharaman, told the upper house of Parliament.
The measures included the freezing of 338,000 bank accounts of inoperative companies in the last two financial years and an enactment of a law with a provision to confiscate the property of economic offenders.
Earlier this month, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted searches in 188 locations across India in connection with 35 bank fraud cases involving funds of over Rs7,200 crore.
Four of these cases involved more than Rs1,000 crore with most of the searches being carried out in Maharashtra (58), Madhya Pradesh (17), Tamil Nadu (17), Uttar Pradesh (15) and Delhi (12).
Tightening the noose on those involved in banking frauds primarily in nationalised banks, the country's apex investigation agency raided multiple premises in Delhi, Gurugram, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Dehradun, Noida, Baramati, Mumbai, Thane, Silvassa, Kalyan, Amritsar, Faridabad, Bengaluru, Tiruppur, Chennai, Madurai, Kollam, Cochin, Bhavnagar, Surat, Ahmedabad, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Varanasi, Chandauli, Bhatinda, Gurdaspur, Morena, Kolkata, Patna, Krishna and Hyderabad.
Among the alleged frauds being probed by the agency are SEL Manufacturing, which defrauded Bank of Maharashtra of Rs113.55 crore, Advance Surfactants defrauded SBI worth Rs118.49 crore, Eskay Knit defrauded Dena Bank (now Bank of Baroda) worth Rs42.16 crore.
After drawing a list of non-performing assets (NPAs) from banks across the country, CBI had registered 35 cases related to bank frauds. In July, the investigation agency raided more than 50 locations in 50 different cities across 12 states and union territories in a countrywide action relating to bank cases.
Banks involved (including consortium members) Andhra Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Indian Overseas Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), Allahabad Bank, Canara Bank, Dena Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank (PNB), Central Bank of India, Union Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of Maharashtra, and Bank of India.
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