A special court has given the go-ahead to start the trial in the Rs 331 crore loan fraud in IFCI against builder Era Housing and Developers and its directors after the CBI filed a charge sheet, officials said Tuesday.

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The CBI had filed the charge sheet against the company and its authorised representative Delhi-based industrialist Hem Singh Bharana besides 13 other entities including companies and individuals, they said.

Taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the CBI, the special court has summoned all the accused for August 14 for initiating the trial, they said.

The central probe agency has charged Bharana and the other accused under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy, cheating and others.

The agency has alleged that all the accused dishonestly induced IFCI Ltd. to disperse the term loan by submitting misleading facts and wrong CA Certificates.

It alleged that as part of the conspiracy, they diverted the term loan funds for a purpose other than it was granted.

"Thereby, in pursuance of criminal conspiracy, they have cheated IFCI Ltd. and incurred wrongful gain to the tune of Rs. 331 Crores to themselves and wrongful loss to IFCI Ltd," the agency alleged.

The IFCI had alleged that the company had started defaulting on loan payments since 2012 following which a number of notices were issued, they said.

When the company went to sell mortgaged properties at Palwal to recover dues, they encountered third parties which claimed their ownership over the land.

The matter was handed over to the CBI in 2020 when the agency was already probing another alleged scam case of Rs 737 crore by Bharana in the UCO Bank in which former chairman and managing director of the bank Arun Kaul was also an accused.