The CBI’s economic offences wing on Wednesday unearthed a multi-crore corporate bribe- for-loan scam and arrested top officers of nationalised banks. Officials of a Mumbai-based private financial services firm who mediated between corporate houses and banks were also held. The eight arrested are Ramchandra Nair, director and CEO of LIC Housing Finance; Naresh Chopra, secretary (investments) of LIC, Mumbai; R.N. Tayal, zonal manager, Bank of India, Chennai; Maninder Singh Johar, director (CA), Central Bank of India; Venkoba Gujjal, deputy GM, Punjab National Bank; Rajesh Sharma, chairman-MD of Money Matters India Pvt Ld; and Suresh Gattani and Sanjay Sharma, both from Money Matters. They were remanded to CBI custody till Monday.
The companies which allegedly got bank funds against kickbacks include Ashapura Minechem, BGR Energy, Lavasa Corp, DB Realty, Suzlon, Mantri Realty, JSW Power, Sigrun, Entertainment World, Indore City Treasures.
“We busted a racket where Sharma and associates bribed senior public sector bank and financial institutions officials to facilitate corporate loans. Searches were conducted in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Jaipur, Kolkata and Jalandhar, and several documents were seized. We registered five cases,” said P. Kanna-swamy, DIG, CBI. Agency sources said Tayal got a `25 lakh bribe, and in return promised to assist Sharma in power project proposals of BGR Energy with `200 crores and the OPG Group with `300 crores. “We recovered a CD of telephonic conversations between Tayal and Sharma,” the source said.