PSB heads along with ex-IDBI chief booked for fraud

Former promoter of Aircel, C Sivasankaran, his son and companies along with heads of two public sector banks — Melwyn Rego of Syndicate Bank and Kishor Kharat of Indian Bank — and former CMD of IDBI Bank M S Raghavan had been booked for allegedly cheating IDBI Bank of Rs 600 crore between 2010 and 2014.

Sivasankaran, chairman of Siva Group of Companies, as far as the CBI is concerned as the entrepreneur, popularly known as “Siva”, is the main complainant in the Aircel-Maxis case where former telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi are named.
The action against Rego, Kharat and Raghavan, who all were with IDBI at the time of the alleged offence, is an extension of the sweep the agency has conducted by going after the brass of government banks who have been under fire for inefficiency and collusion with big debtors leading to a pile of non-performing assets (NPAs) and loss of lakhs of crore.

The CBI says loans worth Rs 322 crore and Rs 523 crore were given to Siva’s two offshore companies – Axcel Sunshine Limited (British Virgin Islands) and Finland-based Win Wind Oy respectively, which later turned into NPAs.