The account was restructured under the CDR mechanism by all the lenders in March 2014.
The account was restructured under the CDR mechanism by all the lenders in March 2014.
State Bank of India (SBI) has clarified that no attempt was made to delay the process of recovery of dues from the insolvent promoters at any point of time. ABG Shipyard Ltd. SBI a. was reacting to PTI report on Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Former top officials, including former chairman of ABG Shipyard Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, have been booked in a bank fraud case worth Rs 22,842 crore. Providing a chronology of events, SBI said in a statement, “ABG Shipyard was incorporated on 15th March 1985, has banking arrangement since 2001. Financed under consortium arrangement on more than two dozen lenders.” It said the leader in the consortium was ICICI Bank. “Due to poor performance, the account became NPA on 30/11/2013. Several attempts were made to revive the company’s operations but could not succeed. The account was restructured under the CDR mechanism by all the lenders in March 2014. However, as the shipping industry was going through a slowdown, one of the worst ever, the company’s operations could not be revived, SBI said. “Due to failure of restructuring, the account was classified as NPA in July 2016, with effect from November 30, 2013 with retrospective effect,” it said. E&Y was appointed as a forensic auditor by the lenders during April 2018 and submitted its report on January 19. The E&Y report was placed before the Fraud Detection Committee of 18 lenders in 2019. Of faith,” said SBI. Although ICICI Bank was the lead lender in the consortium and IDBI was the second lead, it was preferred that SBI, the largest PSB lender, files a complaint with the CBI. “The first complaint was filed with the CBI in November 2019. There was constant linkage between the CBI and the banks and further information was being exchanged,” the lender said. “The circumstances of the fraud as well as the requirements of the CBI, were further discussed in various meetings of the joint lenders and a fresh and comprehensive second complaint was filed in December 2020. The account is currently in the process of liquidation under the NCLT driven process. passing through,” it said. Declaration of fraud is made on the basis of the findings of the forensic audit report, which are thoroughly discussed in the meetings of the joint lenders. “Usually when a fraud is declared, a preliminary complaint is preferred with the CBI, and further information is collected based on their interrogation. In some cases, when sufficient additional information is collected, a second complaint is filed incorporating complete and complete details which form the basis of the FIR,” it said. “At no point of time, there was any attempt to delay the process. The Lender’s Forum follows diligently with the CBI in all such matters,” it added.