Former chief arrested in loan scam,Due process followed-SBI

The Jaisalmer Police have arrested the former SBI chairman Pratik Chaudhury from  his home in Delhi in a loan scam case on the basis of arrest orders issued by the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in the case of selling a hotel property at a cheap price after declaring it NPA.  It is alleged that the property worth about Rs 200 crore was sold for Rs 25 crore by declaring it Non Performing Asset (NPA). Chaudhuri joined the Alchemist as a director following his retirement from the SBI.Chaudhuri retired as the chairman of the SBI in 2013. He was succeeded by Arundhati Bhattacharya.

According to reports, the case is associated with properties owned by Godawan Group wherein its properties were sold for Rs 24 crore following their seizing by the bank at the time of Chaudhuri’s tenure. Godawan Group reportedly took out a loan of Rs24 crore from the SBI in 2008 for constructing a hotel, even as the firm’s other hotel was operating at the time. However, it wasn’t late till the hotel was termed Non-Performing Assets (NPA) over non-repayment of the loan. Later, the bank went on to seize both the hotels of the Godawan Group and sell them to the Alchemist ARC Company at  Rs 25 crore. The Godawan Group approached the court. During assessment of the sold properties in 2017 after Alchemist ARC took over them the preceding year, it was revealed that their market value was at Rs160 crore.

The State Bank of India (SBI) on Monday clarified that the asset was sold with “laid down process” in March 2014, much after he had retired from the services of the bank in September 2013. "Garh Rajwada was a hotel project in Jaisalmer, financed by the Bank in 2007. The project remained incomplete for over three years and the key promoter passed away in April 2010," SBI said in a statement.It further said that the account slipped into a non performing asset (NPA) in June 2010 and various steps taken by the bank to complete the project did not yield results. Subsequently as part of the bank's recovery efforts, the account dues were assigned to an asset reconstruction company (ARC) in 2014, and it was done through a laid down process of the bank's policy, the SBI statement said. "In as much as SBI was not a party to this case, there was no occasion for the views of SBI being heard as part of these proceedings. SBI would like to reiterate that all due process were followed while making the said sale to ARC. The bank has already offered its cooperation to the law enforcement and judicial authorities and will provide further information, if any that may be called for from their side."