Gold, foreign trips as bribe for loans

Top banking officials sought favours in return for unduly sanctioning huge corporate loans

Lavish trips to exotic foreign locales and gold jewellery were among the favours sought by senior officials of public sector banks to sanction corporate loans.

Investigations into the multi-thousand crore loan scam that was unearthed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) revealed that senior officials received huge amounts of bribe and other gratification to sanction large scale loans.

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CBI revealed that senior officials received huge amounts of bribe and other gratification to sanction large scale loans

"Preliminary investigations revealed that the officials received 2 kgs of gold as Diwali gifts apart from huge amounts of cash," said a senior CBI official.

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the CBI arrested eight senior officials from banks and financial institutions on charges of taking bribes yesterday.

The arrested included CEO of LIC Housing Finance Corporation Ramachandran Nair and CEO of Money Matters Financial Services, Rajesh Sharma, on the charges that they intermediated these loans.
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Others arrested include Central Bank of India Director Maninder Singh Johar, Punjab National Bank Deputy General Manager Venkoaba Gujjal, Bank of India General Manager RN Tayal, LIC Secy (Investment) Naresh Chopra.

"They are accused of receiving favours to pass loans without verifying the documents and indulging in gross irregularities. We are investigating the exact roles played by the officials," said P Kandaswamy, joint director, EOW, CBI.

The officials allegedly colluded with the firm to sanction large scale corporate loans, overriding mandatory conditions for such approvals along with other irregularities.

"They were also gathering confidential business information from financial institutions and leaking it," said the official.

The CBI conducted raids in the offices and residences of the arrested accused in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Jalandhar. "We have recovered incriminating documents from the residences.

The papers relate to the scam and how records were fudged. We are examining them," said the official.

2 kg
Amount of gold given as Diwali gifts to officials