Investigation Starts Against 5 ICICI Officials For Cheating Entrepreneur Of Rs 120 Crore: This Is What Happened

In response to a complaint lodged by a hotelier against five senior officials of ICICI Bank for allegedly duping him, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) department of the Mumbai Police has begun a probe into it.

Days after the recent arrest of a former SBI chairman Pratip Chaudhuri, the complaint of which was filed by a Jaisalmer-based hotelier, another such probe has begun by the EOW department of the Mumbai police against 5 officials of the private sector lender ICICI Bank.

What is the Case?

On July 13, 2021, the director of Hotel Horizon Pvt Ltd located at Juhu, Vishal Sharma filed a complaint at the BKC police station in Mumbai against five former senior bank officials and an asset reconstruction company for allegedly duping him of Rs 120 crore.

According to the complainant, the accused 5 bankers, ARC and others have caused him a loss of Rs 120 crore to him since 2011. In 2011, the bank had sanctioned a loan amount of Rs 326 crore as senior term loan and a subordinate term loan of Rs 25 crore, for the hotelier to build a luxury hotel. As per the EOW officers, Sharma had mortgaged properties worth Rs 1,200 crore to avail the loan.

However, Sharma alleges that the bankers confirmed his loan was sanctioned, while the amount would be disbursed in phases. He added that despite being informed of getting Rs 25 crore in the first phase, the bank officials deducted a sum of Rs 15.5 crore as processing fees from the loan account, while Sharma ended up receiving only Rs 9.5 crore.

Instead, on requesting Rs 65 crore to be disbursed as the first instalment, Sharma alleges that the accused bankers submitted a false proposal note before the credit committee for immediate disbursement of ?25 crore, quotes ET.

In June 2016, the bankers continually persuaded Sharma to pay Rs 47.37 crore, stating that if not paid, Sharma’s processing fee amount and interest would not be returned. The loan was later sold to an ARC in September the same year without Sharma’s knowledge.

EOW Summons One of the Accused Banker

As the case has now been transferred to the EOW, the department summoned one of the 5 bank officials of ICICI, who now works in another institution to provide them with the details of the transaction, who joined the probe on Tuesday.

The EOW states that the former ICICI bank official hasn’t been called in as an accused but only to explain the details of the banking procedures.

“The senior executive was called in to explain certain banking procedures pertaining to sanctioning of loans, functioning of the credit committee and the process of roping in an ARC,” cited a senior official of Mumbai police to ET.