Another banking fraud

Mumbai, Mar 21: The State Bank of India (SBI), the largest state-owned lender in country, has accused jewellery chain Kanishk Gold of cheating as many as 14 banks including the Punjab National Bank (PNB) to the tune of Rs 824 crore,according to the media reports.

Kanish, which has a registered office in T Nagar in Chennai, is owned by promoters and directors Bhoopesh Kumar Jain and his wife Neeta Jain. Bankers said they were unable to contact the couple, who are currently believed to be residing in Mauritius. The CBI is yet to file an FIR in this regard.

The SBI has already brought up the matter and has sought help from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which has not filed any case in the matter as yet.

The public sector bank further claims Chennai based jeweller defaulted on interest payments first time in March 2017 to eight member banks. It has also been alleged that Kanishk stopped payments to all 14 banks by as late as April 2017. The bankers were unable to trace the promoter when it initiated its stock audit on 5 April, the report said.