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Former Indian Bank CMD, eight officials chargesheeted

The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a chargesheet against former Indian Bank chairman and managing director M Gopalakrishnan and eight other officials in six cases relating to a Rs 300 million scam, a bureau release in New Delhi said today.

According to the chargesheet, Gopalakrishnan and the officials entered into a criminal conspiracy during 1994-95 with another accused, M Vardharajalu, chairman of the MVR group of companies, to cheat Indian Bank in sanctioning secured overdraft of Rs 300 million by submitting false documents as security in the name of various companies.

The funds, sanctioned for building activities, were diverted to other companies of the MVR group to settle their old liabilities.

Six firms of the MVR group have also been named as accused in the chargesheets, filed in a designated court in Madras yesterday. The firms are Ramraj Trading Company, Well Stores, Sanjeevi Packaging, Indeco Builders, Jaimata Farms and Abhinav Exim Private Limited.

Besides the former CMD, the other accused officials are Shanmugha Sundaram, deputy general manager R Samayaji, assistant general manager, M K Pandian, senior manager, and chief managers R Rangaswamy, K Subramanian, K Sundaramurthy, S R Sridhar and K Venkatesan.

CBI investigations had revealed that the overdraft facility was sanctioned overlooking all norms and procedures of banking and by presenting forged and fabricated documents for the purpose of developing a residential-cum-office complex at Guindy in Madras.

The funds were misused for purposes other than which they were sanctioned for by diverting these to another sister company from where the funds were utilised to settle the overdue liabilities of other sister companies.

The CBI had earlier filed a chargesheet in one of the cases on September 29 against Gopalakrishnan, other senior bank officials and Akilam construction.

UNI