New Delhi

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), on Thursday, conducted searches at over 100 places in 11 States/Union Territories and registered over 30 cases related to bank fraud of at least Rs. 3,700 crore.

A CBI press release said that these searches are “part of a special drive to book fraudusters on complaints from different nationalized banks in India.” The complainant banks include Indian Oversea Bank, Union Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, IDBI, Canara Bank, Indian Bank and Central Bank of India.

The various cities/towns where the searches were conducted include Kanpur, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Mathura, Noida, Gurugram, Chennai, Thiruvarur, Vellore, Tiruppur, Bangalore, Gantur, Hyderbad, Bellery, Vadodara, Kolkata, West Godavari, Surat, Mumbai, Bhopal, Nimadi, Tirupati Visakhapatnam, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Karnal, Jaipur & Sri Ganganagar.

During searches, various incriminating documents and other material/digital evidences have been recovered.

The release further stated that CBI has been receiving a number of complaints from various banks alleging cheating, diversion of funds and submission of fake/forged documents by different defaulting firms while obtaining loans/credit facilities etc.

There have been allegations that such firms have been turning defaulters resulting into the loans becoming Non Performing Assets (NPAs), thus causing heavy loss to the public sector banks.

After scrutiny, the cases were registered by CBI. Thorough investigation was carried out in order to book the culprits, take them to face the law and endeavour to salvage public money.