Rs.100 Crore Fraudulently Transferred From Jharkhand Government's Account To A Private Company

CBI has registered a case where almost 100 crore worth of money has been transferred from the Jharkhand government’s SBI’s account to a private builder. The money was for mid-day meals.

On 7 December, the agency conducted checks on the premises of the company Bhanu Construction in Ranchi.

The FIR was registered by an employee of the State Bank of India. The FIR was lodged against the company and its partners Sanjay Kumar Tiwari and Suresh Kumar, along with the former deputy manager of the bank’s Hatia branch. The deputy manager has been suspended.

The officer from the bank stated that the former deputy manager of the branch “dishonestly and by abusing his official position” transferred over Rs 100 crore from the account of “Rajya Madhyan Bhojan Pradhikaran” to Bhanu Construction, according to an Outlook report.

FIR alleged

The FIR alleged that “On August 05, 2017, State Bank of India, Hatia Branch received six debit advice from the…The government of Jharkhand for transfer of Rs 120.31 crore from their Saving Bank Account to multiple accounts maintained with different banks including State Bank of India.”

The FIR further said that 20.29 crore was to transferred to State Bank of India account and the rest of the money would be transferred to other accounts.

The money was debited from the Rajya Madhyan Bhojan Pradhikaran account and transferred using RTGS/NEFT. It was lodged in the suspense account of the bank, and hence, the transaction came to notice.

Instead of crediting the money back to the Rajya Madhyan Bhojan Pradhikaran, the money was transferred by the deputy manager of the bank to the current account of Bhanu constructions.

Tiwari and Kumar dishonestly transferred the amount to their various accounts. It was utilised and misappropriated by keeping it as a liquid security or margin for the credit facility extended to them by Axis Bank Ltd, HDFC Bank, SREI Equipment Finance Ltd and Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company Ltd, the FIR alleged.

Where is the money now?

SBI has managed to recover Rs 76.29 crore on November 20, 2017, from various accounts with different banks but Rs 23.28 crore could not be recovered. Hence, the gain is ultimately that of Bhanu constructions.

Cases of criminal conspiracy, cheating has been registered against the accused under the provision of Prevention of Corruption.