Gautam Thapar booked in Rs 446-cr Yes Bank fraud | Economic Times

NEW DELHI: The CBI has filed an FIR against industrialist Gautam Thapar, promoter of the Avantha Group, and several others in connection with an alleged bank fraud case of Rs 466 crore. Thapar and others have been accused of defrauding Yes Bank by availing a loan which turned into a non-performing asset (NPA). The agency confirmed that searches were conducted at 14 locations in Delhi and NCR, Lucknow, Secunderabd and Kolkata on Wednesday which led to recovery of incriminating documents and digital evidence. The action by the bank and the anti graft agency comes promptly in just over a year of the loan turning an NPA and the account being flagged by the lender. An agency spokesperson said on Wednesday that the CBI had registered a case against two private companies based at Gurugram and Delhi and their directors and promoters apart from some yet to be identified bank officials for causing an alleged loss of Rs 466.51 crore to Yes Bank. “It was alleged that the private company based at Gurugram/Delhi had availed term loan facility of Rs 515 crore from Yes Bank Limited in December, 2017. The loan amount was declared as NPA on October 30, 2019. Further, the borrower was allegedly declared ‘Red Flagged Account’ on March 6, 2020 on the basis of Early Warning Signals (EWS),” the spokesperson said. He added that the accused and its holding company and their directors committed breach of trust, cheating, criminal conspiracy and forgery for diversion/misappropriation of the public money during 2017-2019. Apart from Thapar, 60, the agency has also named Raghubir Kumar Sharma, Rajendra Kumar Mangal, Tapsi Mahajan, and their companies M/s Oyster Buildwell Pvt Ltd, Avantha Reality Pvt Ltd and unknown officials of Jhabua Power Ltd. Sources said that around twenty locations including the premises of Thapar was searched. Yes Bank had filed a complaint against the accused after a forensic audit revealed misappropriation and diversion of funds. The accused have been booked under sections of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and forgery. Last year, the CBI had filed an FIR against Rana Kapoor, former MD of Yes Bank, and his family members apart from Gautam Thapar and his Avantha group in connection with the sale-purchase of a prime property on Amrita Shergill Marg in Delhi. Kapoor had been accused of obtaining Rs 307 crore as bribe in the purchase of the bungalow and giving undue credit facilities to the Avantha Group companies