A DAY after the CBI said it has booked a Gujarat-based ship-building company and its directors for fraudulent loan default to the tune of Rs 22,842 crore, the Congress on Sunday hit out at the government, alleging that it was running a “loot and escape” scheme for bank fraudsters.
While Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also targeted the government at a poll rally on Sunday, the ruling BJP hit back at the charges, saying these loans were sanctioned when the UPA was in power whereas the Modi government has gone after the promoters behind such frauds.
Claiming that liquidation proceedings of ABG Shipyard had begun in 2017, the Congress asked why it took five years for the CBI to lodge the FIR.
The CBI on Saturday said it has booked ABG Shipyard Ltd (ABGSL) and its former chairman and managing director, Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, along with then executive director Santhanam Muthaswamy, directors Ashwini Kumar, Sushil Kumar Agarwal and Ravi Vimal Nevetia. Another firm, ABG International Pvt Ltd, has also been booked for criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and abuse of official position.
Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the process of liquidation of ABG Shipyard was initiated in the NCLT, Ahmedabad in August 2017. In June 2019, he said, the loan and bank accounts of ABG Shipyard were declared as “fraud” and five months later, in November, the State Bank of India filed a complaint with the…
