India’s premier investigation agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is very likely to name many senior bank officers who dealt with the loans sanctioned to fugitive, Indian business tycoon, Vijay Mallya.
CBI is expected to file its charge within a time span of 30 days.
The CBI charge sheet which is yet to be filed, would be the first charge sheet in the financial criminal case which pertaining to lending more than £ 631.74 million given to Kingfisher by a consortium of 17 banks led by India’s state-owned State Bank of India (SBI) which alone has an exposure of £168.46m.
The agency has already filed a charge sheet against Mallya last year in connection with a separate case related to £ 94.76m pending loans given by public sector lender, IDBI bank in which senior officials of the bank were allegedly played their roles. CBI has already registered two cases against Mallya related to the lending by IDBI bank in 2015 and other banks in 2016.
According to media reports, the first phase of the investigation into the loans given to by a bunch of banks is almost concluded and the charge sheet is expected to be filed within a month.
The investigation agency has also collected strong evidence against the misuse of official position by the retired and serving bank officials who dealt the process to sanction loans to Mallya and his businesses. Such officials including the staff of SBI are likely to be named as accused in the charge sheet.
The top executives of grounded Kingfisher Airlines including Mallya and its Chief Financial Officer Raghunathan and others will be named as accused in the financial criminal case. CBI has also turned its focus on India’s finance ministry officials who may have influenced the top officers of the banks.
The central investigation agency has also collected sufficient evidence to show that Mallya diverted the loan funds from the purpose for which the loans sanctioned.
