GUWAHATI: Leader of Opposition in Assam legislative assembly Debabrata Saikia, on Saturday (October 21), demanded the state government to order a probe by central agencies into the alleged siphoning of Rs 20.30 crore from Assam Apex Cooperative Bank Ltd.
A businessman, who was earlier allegedly involved in the multi-crore rupee Saradha chit fund scam, managed to acquire Rs 20.30 lakh from the Dispur branch of Assam Apex Cooperative Bank Ltd in a “fraudulent way”.
Rajesh Bajaj, managing director of Northeast Plantation and Commercial Pvt Ltd, which owns Usha Tea Estate in Golaghat district of Assam, had managed to get the amount from the bank by “demand bill purchase” procedure, at the behest of the bank’s chairman Biswajit Phukan, a BJP MLA from Sarupathar constituency in Golaghat district of Assam.
Bajaj produced the demand bill for getting the amount from the bank from April 5 to June 20.
He received Rs 6 crore on April 5, Rs 3 crore on April 18, Rs 2 crore on April 28, Rs 4 crore on May 2, Rs 95 lakh on June 2, Rs 80 lakh on June 9 and lastly Rs 3.55 crore on June 20 from the Dispur branch of the bank.
He had deposited five cheques, in which there were no sufficient funds for honouring the cheques.
Usually, a bank can allow a company to withdraw a certain amount from its account against a cheque it produced from a third party.
It is a process where the unpaid invoices are sold to a third party in exchange for a discounted final settlement.
However, as digital transactions drive the growth of the digital economy and the net banking mechanism replaces the age-old cheque clearing mechanism, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stopped the demand bill purchase system in all commercial banks.
It is alleged that the bank has violated the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s master circular on customer service issued on June 1, 2015, and paid Bajaj’s company to withdraw the amount.
In this case, Bajaj used his own cheque from his account from another bank as a demand bill instead of producing a third-party check.
It is also alleged that Bajaj has influenced the bank chairman Biswajit Phukan to lend the amount from the bank.
Sources said Bajaj has already paid back an amount to the bank but the full amount is yet to be realized.
In a similar case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested former ICICI Bank MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar, for allegedly cheating ICICI Bank of Rs 1,730 crore until March 2012 by providing a loan to Videocon Group in 2012.
Bajaj was earlier a director of Positive Television Pvt ltd, which won NETV, the first-ever private satellite channel of Northeast. Bajaj was interrogated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for the fifth time, the last being on September 1, 2014, in Kolkata.
It was alleged that Saradha chief Sudipta Sen had told CBI that he was supposed to get back Rs 28 crore after the deal between his firm and NETV owner – former union minister Matang Singh regarding the takeover of the channel failed to materialize.
Sen said the former minister had returned the money via Bajaj but the latter never handed it back to him.
Reacting to the incident, Debabrata Saikia Saturday said: “The incident took place as Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma intervened in the matter politically. I have heard that the Chief Minister reportedly said that the Assam government has nothing to do with any decision of the Apex Bank. It is not like that. The Assam government has more than a 21 per cent share in the bank. If the bank loses, the government will have to lose. The additional chief secretary is also a nominated member of the board of directors of the bank. Some cooperative societies have also a 22 per cent share in the bank. Individual depositors have also a 47 per cent share in it. There are more than 10 lakh bank accounts of common people here.”
“The Chief Minister’s statement is political. And it is unfortunate. I came to know that the bank employees union has demanded a probe by CM’s Special Vigilance Cell into it. But we have noticed that the government orders CID or BIEO probe into political scams and later they use it as a tool for blackmailing the political leaders,” Saikia said.
“Many political leaders, including MLA and BJP spokesperson are members of the BOD. The Chief Minister is trying to mislead the people. The government has responsibility for the bank,” Saikia also said.
“I demand a probe by a Central agency into it. At the same time, the government has to prevent such fraudulent incidents in the bank,” he said.
“The person who took the loan has written to the managing director of the bank on a stamp paper worth Rs 100 seeking the loan against the cheques of his cash credit account and current account, where there is no sufficient fund to honour the cheques. How can a bank provide such a big loan based on such a paper” he questioned.
“There are certain rules for issuance of overdraft in the bank. According to this rule, the bank can provide an advance to its customer against the security of the customer’s own term deposit receipt with the bank. The bank maintains 20 per cent or 25 per cent margin for loans against fixed deposit with 1.5 per cent rate of interest,” he further said.
Bank chairman Biswajit Phukan also claimed that the management of the bank was not aware of the incident.
However, Saikia claimed that a branch manager cannot provide a loan beyond Rs 10 lakh without the permission of the BOD.
On Friday, Assam Apex Cooperative Bank Employees Association demanded an inquiry by the Chief Minister’s Special Vigilance Cell and book all the culprits involved in the bank forgery.
“The bank has provided the loan without taking any mortgage from the customer. A branch manager can’t sanction such a huge loan without the permission of the board of directors. We demand a probe by CM’s Special Vigilance Cell into it and punish the guilty,” said MLA Ramendra Narayan Kalita, who is also the president of the employees association.