Acting on a plea of a private firm director who had alleged that certain officials of the State Bank of India (SBI) and Standard Chartered Bank were hand-in-glove for the sale of non-performing assets at throw-away prices to “builder mafias,” Justice Mukta Gupta of the Delhi high court has issued a notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) asking it to inquire into the matter.
Issuing a notice to the CBI, the court sought a response within four weeks.
Saroj Kumar Bagaria, a Delhi-based businessman and director of M/s Vishal Global Ltd, in his petition, said that the firm had been granted a credit facility of `5 crores in 1999 and pledged his property as security with the SBI.
As the firm suffered losses and could not repay the loan, some officials of the SBI and SCB conspired and sold its alleged “bad debt”, declared as non-performing asset (NPA), to a “builder mafia” at cheap price.
Terming it as conspiracy, Mr Bagaria has sought the court’s directions to the CBI and the Bank Securities and Fraud Cell to register an FIR on the basis of his complaint, lodged in 2010.
“Erring persons (builder mafias) conspired with officials of SBI and the SCB to buy such loans (secured by properties) at price of peanuts and cause huge wrongful loss to the SBI and its borrowers and huge wrongful gains to themselves as well as SCB,” the petition said.