Shares of PSU banks cracked in the mid-morning deals on Thursday with stocks of big state-run banks such as SBI and PNB falling up to 2% as the Central Bureau of Investigation took charge in Kanishk Gold Pvt Ltd’s Rs 824 crore fraud. The investigative agency CBI had registered a case of an alleged loan fraud of Rs 824.15 crore involving the Chennai-based Kanish Gold Pvt Ltd. According to an IANS report, Kanishk Gold Pvt Ltd has been accused of defrauding an amount of Rs 824 crore to an SBI-led consortium of 14 public and private sector banks including the scam-hit Punjab National Bank and ICICI Bank.
Following another downturn in PSU banks after the PNB-Nirav Modi Rs 13,600 crore scandal, shares of all the components of benchmark Nifty PSU bank index fell into negative territory with India’s largest bank by assets State Bank of India losing the most. Shares of State Bank of India dropped 2.54% to a day’s low of Rs 241.7 on NSE followed by the shares of Andhra Bank (down 1.98%), Syndicate Bank (down 1.85%), Allahabad Bank (down 1.72%), Oriental Bank of Commerce (down 0.94%), Bank of India (down 0.92%), PNB (down 0.82%), Indian Bank (down 0.73%) and Union Bank of India (down 0.73%).
On the complaint by State Bank of India, the Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against the Kanishk Gold Pvt Ltd, its promoter Director Bhoopesh Kumar Jain, Director Neeta Jain, Tejraj Achha, Ajay Kumar Jain and Sumit Kedia, as per a PTI report. State Bank of India had alleged that the fraud amount approximates to Rs 824.15 crore, but the security available with it to cover the loss is only about Rs 156.65 crore, PTI reported citing CBI complaint by State Bank of India. SBI has alleged that the Kanishk Gold Pvt Ltd had “misrepresented and falsified” the records and financial statements of the company to show a “rosy picture” since 2009 to avail credit facilities from it, the report added.
According to an IANS report, in the so-called fraud of Rs 824 crore, State Bank of India has the most exposure to Kanishk Gold Pvt Ltd amounting Rs 240 crore. The list is followed by Punjab National Bank (Rs 128 crore), Bank of India (Rs 46 crore), IDBI (Rs 49 crore), Syndicate Bank (Rs 54 crore), Union Bank of India (Rs 53 crore), UCO Bank (Rs 45 crore), Central Bank of India (Rs 22 crore), Corporation Bank (Rs 23 crore), Bank of Baroda (Rs 32 crore), Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank (Rs 27 crore), HDFC (Rs 27 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 27 crore) and Andhra Bank (Rs 32 crore).
