A long way from the Red Fort, J&K State Cooperative Bank stakeholders, executives, and account holders recalled how a Rs 223 crore loan scam had wreaked havoc on their beloved bank and caused the bank’s financial situation to worsen.
Informing about the case, they said that “J&K State Cooperative Bank sanctioned a loan of Rs 250 crore in favour of a non-existent society namely River Jehlum Co-operative House Building Society (RJCHBS) in April 2019, out of which Rs 223 crore were disbursed and transferred to the bank accounts of the purported landowners.”
“The loan had been sanctioned for the “establishment of a satellite township at Shivpora, Sonwar Srinagar” on a patch of land measuring 257 kanals and 19 Marlas. However, in 2020, during the course of investigations conducted by the Anti Corruption Bureau, it came to the fore that the loan had been sanctioned and disbursed in gross violation of the bank norms, there being grave discrepancies in the documentation as well, and post disbursement monitoring reported by the NABARD in its inspection pointing to gross deficiencies in the loan application, appraisal, the process of sanction, and in violation of the delegation of sanctioning of the loan.”
