The Central Bank of India has registered an FIR against telecom infrastructure major GTL Ltd. some unknown bankers and directors for allegedly diverting a substantial portion of a Rs 4,760 crore loan availed from a consortium of banks led by IDBI Bank, official said on Thursday.

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The probe agency has booked the company, unidentified directors, public officials and vendors under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy, cheating and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, after the company fraudulently obtained loans from a bank consortium of around 24 lenders and subsequently siphoned off majority of the loan amount in conspiracy with vendors and some bank officials, among others.

According to the FIR, enquiries revealed that GTL Limited was extending advances to vendors year on year without supply of material, goods, and eventually these advances were provisioned.

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To facilitate the fraud, the perpetrators allegedly created various vendor companies in connivance with GTL Ltd, the CBI said. Among the banks, ICICI Bank has an exposure of Rs 650 crore to GTL Ltd, Bank of India Rs 467 crore and Canara Bank has Rs 412 crore.

"Various vendor companies were created and operated with the malafide intention of siphoning off the bank short term funds and other credit facilities in connivance with borrower i.e. GTL Limited," the FIR alleged.

The company obtained short term loan amounts for certain business activities by misrepresentation that all such loan amount will be utilised for the purpose of the said purpose. But soon after disbursement, majority of the loan amount was not utilised for the purpose for which it was granted, the CBI said.

Started by Manoj Tirodkar and Global Holding Corporation Pvt Ltd (GHC) in 1987, GTL is engaged in the business of providing telecom network deployment services, operations and maintenance services to telecom operators in India and international markets.

The IDBI Bank had conducted a special audit of the company in 2011 and raised the issue of suspicious transaction with the vendors.

The Economic Offences unit of the agency has found that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had warned IDBI Bank on April 1, 2016 to "red flag" the account and conduct a forensic audit, but in its response submitted two months later, the bank stated on behalf of the entire consortium lenders not to classify the account as 'Red Flags' and also not to appoint a forensic auditor as it may delay the dues settlement.

The RBI reiterated its directive following which a forensic audit was instituted on July 30, 2016. The company was engaged in the business of providing telecom network deployment services, operations and maintenance services professional services, network planning and design services and energy management services to telecom operators in India and international markets.

The CBI has alleged that an amount of Rs 1,213.97 crore (86.84 per cent) is outstanding against four companies -- Acuity Trading Pvt Ltd, Lenity Trading Pvt Ltd, Venerate Trading Pvt Ltd and Vinamara Multitrading Pvt Ltd -- which were given huge advances for supply of material from financial year 2009-10 to 2011-12, but supply orders were completed. "Eventually, Rs 1,213.97 crore was left outstanding towards these four vendors which was gradually provisioned till 2017-18," the FIR alleged.

The CBI found that advances were given despite their meagre net worth and their recent incorporation. "The enquiry further revealed that all these vendor companies were incorporated within a short span of less than three months. And the Memorandum of Association (MoA) of these vendors of GTL Limited is exactly the same. There are same corrections in all the MoA's which clearly establishes that all the MoA's have been drafted by the same agency/source," the FIR alleged.

During the enquiry of some of these vendors entities were examined.

"These directors had no knowledge about the supply made by them to GTL Limited, source of procurement by vendor companies, godown of vendor companies, where was the material being supplied. They also did not have any knowledge of the work that these vendor companies used to do," it said.

The 2016 forensic audit of the company showed GTL Limited has made substantial advances for the procurement of material to some of the vendors even though the purchases made from these parties were much lesser.

With inputs from agencies.

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(Edited by : Anushka Sharma)