Bhushan Power And Steel Committed Rs 3,805-Crore Fraud, Declares Punjab National Bank

Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Saturday (6 July) has declared loan exposure of Rs 3,805.15 crore to Bhushan Power and Steel as fraud, The Economic Times reported.

In a note to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the state-run lender reported the fraud in basis of forensic audit findings, and CBI filling FIR, on suo moto against the company and their directors for alleging diversing guns from the banking system.

The fraud includes Rs 3,191.5 crore domestic exposure at PNB’s Chandigarh Large Corporate Branch, overseas exposure of Rs 345.74 crore ($49.71 million) at PNB Dubai branch and Rs 267.90 crore ($38.51 million) at Hong Kong branch. PNB said that it has already made provisions of Rs 1932.47 crore towards the exposure.

“It has been observed that the company has misappropriated bank funds, manipulated books of accounts to raise funds from consortium lender banks. At present, the case is at NCLT which is in advance stage and the Bank expects good recovery in the account,” a statement from PNB said.