New Delhi, Nov 13 The CBI has registered a case against Mainpuri-based Bhagwati Rice Mill Pvt Ltd and its directors for allegedly defrauding Punjab National Bank of Rs 63.51 crore, officials said Friday.
The action comes on a complaint filed by the Punjab National Bank, which had extended a Rs 66 crore loan in two tranches to the company that has been dealing with the bank since 1995.
The bank has said that the earlier fraud declaration was set aside by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in August 2025 on procedural grounds. Fresh proceedings were subsequently initiated by the bank.
The PNB complaint, now part of the FIR, has alleged that the company failed to maintain financial discipline, diverted funds and violated the terms of sanction.
The account became irregular and was classified as a non-performing asset (NPA) on June 8, 2023, as per RBI guidelines,
The accused fraudulently and dishonestly siphoned and diverted the borrowed funds, resulting in criminal misappropriation of funds and criminal breach of trust with malafide and dishonest intention for causing wrongful loss to the complainant bank and wrongful gain to themselves, it alleged.
The forensic report flagged two firms — Jai Hanuman Traders and Shriram Traders — which were introduced as major sundry debtors in the company’s financial statements.
The outstanding amounts against the two firms were shown as Rs 28.78 crore and Rs 24.35 crore, respectively, it alleged.
The transactions were allegedly reflected in the company’s stock and debtor statements for the first time, the complaint said.
It found that the GST registrations of Jai Hanuman Traders and Shriram Traders were obtained in February 2023 and cancelled in February 2024.
Letters sent by the forensic auditor to the firms at their registered addresses were also returned undelivered.
The bank roped in a detective agency to investigate transactions involving the rice mill, which found no rice or paddy stock at the residential addresses of two new buyers to whom the company had extended credit worth crores of rupees, raising serious questions about the genuineness of the transactions.
Investigators visited the residential addresses of the firms’ proprietors, Vijay Singh and Hemant Kumar, but both denied having any business dealings with Bhagwati Rice Mill and claimed they had neither purchased nor sold goods to the company, the bank alleged, noting that both belonged to poor families with no stocks of paddy or rice.
The purported proprietors also expressed ignorance about knowing the firm Shri Ram Traders & Jai Hanuman Traders, it said.
“The borrower (rice mill) is experienced in this field for more than the last 25 years, and the average holding of debtors for the last four years is approx. Rs 17 crore, but the borrower has suddenly supplied such a huge amount of stock to new customers on credit without verifying their credentials, whereabouts; resultantly amount of more than Rs 46 crore could not be realised from debtors which is a setback for bank. This fact raises fingers towards the intention of the borrower,” the complaint alleged.
The FIR alleged that there was premeditated malafide intention of the borrower to cheat and defraud the complainant bank is apparent and the accused did not intend to repay the dues of the PNB.
(PTI News)
