The Central Bureau of Investigation, on Tuesday, June 14, filed a formal charge sheet against the accused then Chief Manager of Syndicate Bank branch at Udaipur in the Rs 1000 Cr Syndicate Bank scam, along with four others.

Charge sheets were filed in the designated CBI Court in Jaipur against SK Gupta, erstwhile Chief Manager of Syndicate Bank, Udaipur Branch; Usha Gupta, his wife; Jaipur based businessman Shankar Khandelwal; Udaipur based Chartered Accountant Bharat Bomb and Vipul Kaushik, who ran an NGO.

The Rs 1000 Cr scam was committed by this nexus, using forged Letters of Credit, LIC Policies, fake accounts and forged cheques to launder and withdraw money.

CBI has filed the charge sheet under various sections of the IPC related to criminal conspiracy and cheating through forged documents, said the CBI.

CBI has alleged in its charge sheet that Bharat Bomb and Khandelwal, from time to time, between 2011-2016 used to provide forged false cheques to the Chief Manager Gupta, who used to exercise undue influence and go beyond his requisite powers to get these instruments discounted and credit the money to various (legitimate as well as fake) accounts in the bank.  These accounts were also opened in the nexus, without requisite KYC documentation.

CBI further claimed in its charge sheet that Usha Gupta, a Chartered Accountant by profession, and wife of Chief Manager Gupta, had been a co-conspirator and co-ordinator in the scam.  She had received over Rs. 5 Cr from the laundered money through this scam.

In the investigation, if was found that LIC policies pledged against loans were allegedly fake and were issued in the names of different people for different terms and sum assured.  Raids and searches were carried out by the CBI in 10 locations across three cities – Udaipur, Jaipur and New Delhi since the case was registered by CBI in March this year, when the fraud was discovered.  At that time, the case was registered against nine people, including Bank officials apart from Bharat Bomb and Shankar Khandelwal for allegedly opening 386 accounts in three branches of Syndicate Bank in Rajasthan and defrauding the bank of Rs. 1,000 Crore using fake cheques, Letters of Credit and LIC policies.

It noted that the scam continued unabated through 2011-2016 even escaping notice during audits.  It was also alleged that the appointed audit firms by Syndicate Bank could be party to the nexus.

Source: Press Trust of India