The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a first information report in an alleged Rs 22,842 crore bank fraud case related to ABG Shipyard Ltd, according to a report by Press Trust of India.
The FIR names ABG Shipyard’s then Chairman and Managing Director Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal along with others for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India of over Rs 22,842 crore, the news agency reported.
The action follows a complaint filed by State Bank of India in 2019. ABG Shipyard had defaulted on loans worth Rs 2,925 crore to SBI, Rs 7,089 crore to ICICI Bank, Rs 3,634 crore to IDBI Bank, Rs 1,614 crore to Bank of Baroda, Rs 1,244 to Punjab National Bank and Rs 1,228 crore to Indian Overseas Bank, according to separate report published by NDTV.
The CBI alleges that bank funds were used for purposes other than for which they were released by banks, NDTV reported.
ABG Shipyard was engaged in shipbuilding and ship repair.
The company went under corporate debt restructuring in March 2014. In September 2016, the company had sought shareholder approval for allowing lenders to convert up to Rs 16,397-crore of debt in exchange for more than 51% stake in the company under the Reserve Bank of India’s strategic debt restructuring (SDR) mechanism. The proposal was rejected.
In 2017, ABG Shipyard found itself in a list of companies that the RBI identified for insolvency proceedings. Liquidation was initiated in 2019 after a potential bid from Liberty House was rejected.