CBI registers case against Syndicate Bank CMD

Syndicate Bank CMD Sudhir Kumar Jain

BL :NEW DELHI, AUGUST 2: 2014

The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case of alleged bribery against the Chairman & Managing Director of Syndicate Bank, Sudhir Kumar Jain and 11 others including CMD & Directors of two private firms based at Delhi. Case has been registered under Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and criminal conspiracy.

The allegation pertains to Jain asking for bribe to extend credit facilities to certain companies. The agency also raided 20 places at 4 cities of Bangalore, Bhopal, Mumbai and Delhi. It has recovered bribe amount of Rs 50 lakhs. A senior CBI official said that cash amounting approximately Rs 21 lakh, gold worth Rs 1.68 crore and Fixed Deposit Receipts worth Rs 63 lakh found from Jain.

He also disclosed names of suspected/accused in this case which include Neeraj Singhal (Vice Chairman of Delhi based Bhushan Steel), Ved Prakash Agarwal (Chairman & Managing Director of Delhi based Prakash Industries), Vipul Agarwal (Prakash Industries), Pawan Bansal, Vineet Godha, Punit Godha, Vijay Pahuja, Pursotam Lal Totlani and Pankaj Bansal.

According to an official statement, it is alleged that the said public servant has been indulging into negotiations for illegal gratification directly as well as through middlemen for extending undue favour to private companies by granting sanction to various financial proposals. The private persons on behalf of companies and others allegedly enter into criminal conspiracy and obtain illegal gratification meant for the public servant and further deliver it to the middlemen on behalf of the public servant.

It is further alleged, that in one case, the public servant was directly negotiating with a private company for an illegal gratification of Rs. 50 lakh in lieu of granting credit extension to the said company as it had defaulted on the payment of loan installments amounting to crores of rupees to the bank. The officials of the said company allegedly agreed to pay the said illegal gratification and the money was transferred to the middlemen who are also relative of the public servant. CBI laid a trap and recovered the illegal gratification of Rs. 50 lakh on the spot after the said delivery was made.

Jain assumed charge as CMD of the bank on July 8 last year. He has been in banking industry for 26 years.

(This article was published on August 2, 2014)