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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Banks under fire for Saradha mess -Srikumar Bondyopadhyay

Banks under fire for Saradha mess -Srikumar Bondyopadhyay

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published Published on May 8, 2013   modified Modified on May 8, 2013
-The Times of India


KOLKATA: It's not only Cobrapost that seems to be stinging public sector banks. State-owned banks have come under fire and are accused of being hand-in-glove with willful defaulters like Ponzi kingpin Sudipta Sen.

In a 25-page statement that the CBI deems a confession, Sen has detailed how he acquired Global Automobiles, a company with a bank debt of Rs 186 crore. Formed in 2005, the company's owner Shantanu Ghosh was already on top of the defaulters' list and the firm on the verge of shutting down when Sen took over.

"Shantanu Ghosh came along with Indrajit Chandra...(and said) he owns a company namely Global Automobiles Ltd and told me that this company can generate Rs 55,000 cr per month if it can run properly. All that it has a bank loan of Rs 200 crore (sic)," Sen told CBI.

"They will pay Rs 140 crore in 3-5 years, so they wanted Rs 22 crore from me. The agreement has been signed and I paid Rs 2 crore 60 lakh. Again Ghosh came and offered the entire 75% stake to me. I paid Rs 5 crore to Ghosh and Rs 29 crore to banks under escrow accounts."

The question is: On what basis did the bankers consider him capable of repaying the loan that had already turned non-performing? Moreover, the fact that banks also knew of Ghosh selling his ownership of the company to Saradha Realty was clear from the minutes of several meetings that lender banks held in 2012.

Sen has alleged that while handing over shares of Global Automobiles, Ghosh made him sign papers to become the corporate guarantor of the outstanding loan. Since Sen took over Global Automobiles, not a single motorcycle rolled out of the company's unit at Sugandha near the then proposed site of Nano in Singur.

During a meeting of the lenders' consortia on March 20 last year, it was decided the entire outstanding of Rs 186 crore would be restructured for Saradha Realty and the company would have to repay Rs 140 crore. Lenders, however, put a condition that the company would have to promise to deposit 25% of the loan amount, or Rs 35 crore, in an escrow account by March 30, 2012.

When Sen didn't pay the money, bankers, at their next meeting on June 25, 2012, summoned Global Automobiles CEO Indrajit Chandra to the Indian Bank's zonal office. When the manager of the zonal office, Malay Mukherjee pointed out at the meeting that till June 12, Global Automobiles had remitted only Rs 24.94 crore, Chandra explained that the company was stuck with meeting other financial commitments.

However, the then deputy general manager of Stressed Assets Management Branch of the State Bank of India, RC Panda, categorically said the bank was taking legal action to recover the money. "The bank's apprehensions that Saradha Realty was not having the means to honour its commitments came true," the minutes of the meeting quoted Panda as saying.

Following revelations about the Saradha scam, a number of questions have cropped up- Despite knowing that Sen neither had the means nor the will to repay the loan, how did banks allow the share transfer deal between Ghosh and Sen? Why did they allow Sen to repay a loan that were already turned into NPAs? Why were bankers so hesitant to take the legal route?

Chandra informed bankers that Sen, who was out of town at that time, would meet lenders on June 26. Accordingly, a third meeting was called at the Stressed Assets Management Branch. But Sen didn't turn up. At the meeting, Punjab National Bank's circle head, Subodh Kaushik, said, "We should find out where the total amount of Rs 186 crore has been utilized. All bankers should act cohesively and decide the future course of action."

After buying Channel 10 from Ghosh, Sen had entered the media business.


The Times of India, 8 May, 2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Banks-under-fire-for-Saradha-mess/articleshow/19942443.cms


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