Another bank fraud has surfaced up after the State Bank of India has asked CBI to help investigate the jewelry chain of Kanishk Gold Pvt Ltd and look into the loan fraud of Rs. 842.15 Crore. The registered office of Kanishk is situated in T Nagar in Chennai and is owned by the promoters as well as directors named Bhoopesh Kumar Jain and his wife Neeta Jain. The couple is currently living in Mauritius and cannot be reached said the bankers. An FIR is yet to be filed related to this incident. In a group of 14 public and private sector lenders, SBI was the leading bank in giving loans to Kanishk.
However, in a letter which was dated 25th January 2018, SBI has charged Kanishk for manipulating its records and shutting down the shop overnight. The principal loaned is Rs. 824 Crore and after adding the interest, the total interest due will cause a heavy loss of over Rs. 1000 Crore to the banks. SBI had declared the account fraud on 11th November 2017 to the RBI. All the other members too declared it fraudulent by January to the regulator.
SBI stated that the first non-payment made by the jeweler was in March 2017 in interest payments to eight member banks. Kanishk had stopped its payments to all the 14 banks by April 2017 after which the bankers were not able to contact the promoter when the stock audit started on 5th April 2017.When the bankers visited the corporate office of Kanishk, the facilities were shut down with no activity and no stock. SBI gave loans of Rs. 215 Crore, PNB extended a loan of Rs. 115 Crore, Syndicate Bank of Rs. 50 Crore, Bank of India of Rs. 45 Crore and IDBI Bank of Rs. 45 Crore.