The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday, November 5, conducted searches across 169 locations in the country in connection to various bank fraud amounting to over Rs 7,000 crore.
CBI said that the searches were conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, MP, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, UP, Uttarakhand and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Over 170 teams conducted the searches in connection with 35 cases related to bank frauds involving thousands of crores.
The raids primarily targetted nationalised banks. As per the Reserve Bank of India, there were around 6,800 cases of bank fraud involving Rs 71,500 crore in 2018-19. After the Rs 13,000 crore bank fraud involving Punjab National Bank, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, the central government had instructed the CBI to take stringent action against bank fraudulent.
Maximum searches were reported from Maharashtra where the agency’s teams raided 58 locations followed by Punjab, where 32 locations were searched. 12 locations were searched in the national capital, 17 in Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh each, 15 in Uttar Pradesh, 5 in Andhra Pradesh, 2 in Chandigarh, 4 in Kerala, Telangana Dadra and Nagar Haveli each, 5 in Gujarat and Haryana each, 6 in Karnataka and 2 in Uttarakhand and West Bengal each, they added.
CBI teams were accompanied by financial experts and auditors, who were responsible for identifying and assessing documents related to loans borrowed by defaulters, reported India Today. The total fraud amount will be ascertained by the CBI and will be shared with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as well. Bank officials also remain under scanner for lending unsecured loans.
The agency began its crackdown after receiving multiple complaints from banks in July this year. In July, CBI raided more than 50 locations in different cities across 12 states and UTs in a nationwide action relating to bank cases.
The earlier raids were carried out in cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Ludhiana, Thane, Valsad, Pune, Palani, Gaya, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Surat and Kolar.
Also Read: RBI Governor Under Pressure, Directors Raise Questions On ‘Undetected’ Bank Frauds
