New Delhi: ABG Shipyard Limited founder-chairman Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation CBI on Wednesday over alleged bank fraud of more than Rs 22,842 crore, PTI reported citing officials.
The central agency has charged Agarwal and others with criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and abuse of official position under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act, officials said.
According to them, ABG Shipyard sanctioned credit facilities from 28 banks and financial institutions headed by ICICI Bank, with the State Bank of India (SBI) having exposure of ₹ 2,468.51 crores. Ernst and Young's forensic audit showed that the accused colluded with each other to commit illegal transactions, such as diversion and misappropriation of funds and criminal breach of trust from 2012 to 2017.
The funds were allegedly used for other purposes than they were released by the banks, officials stated. In July 2016, the loan account was declared a non-performing asset (NPA) and a fraud in 2019.