Another PNB-Like Scam? Rotomac Pens Owner 'Flees' After Taking Rs 800 Crore from Govt-run Banks

Kanpur: Just days after the Punjab National Bank (PNB) Rs 11,360 crore fraud came to light, another state-run bank has reported a million dollar scam. The parent company of Rotomac Pens has been accused of fleeing with loans of more than Rs 800 crore from various government banks in the country.

According to sources, the owner of the company, Vikram Kothari, had taken a loan of more than Rs 800 crores from five government banks. Sources have confirmed that Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank and Union Bank of India compromised their rules to render these loans to Kothari.

Kothari took a loan of Rs 485 crore from Union Bank of India and a loan of Rs 352 crore from Allahabad Bank. A year later, Kothari has been reported to not have paid back either the interest or the loaned amount.

Kothari's office in Kanpur’s City Center road has been locked for the past week. Kothari, too, has been untraceable ever since.

Meanwhile, Allahabad Bank manager Rajesh Gupta said he hoped the amount would be recovered by selling Kothari’s properties.

This comes after jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi were involved in fraudulent transactions worth Rs 11,360 crore through PNB.

According to a complaint by PNB, the biggest fraud in Indian banking history involved two junior officials at a Mumbai bank branch issuing "letters of undertaking" to firms linked to Modi and Choksi for them to obtain credit from overseas branches of other Indian lenders.

While three companies of Mehul Choksi — Gitanjali Gems, Gili India and Nakshatra Brand Ltd — have been named in the CBI FIR, Modi and Choksi’s passports have now been cancelled for four weeks by the Ministry of External Affairs.

“On the advice of the Enforcement Directorate, the passport issuing authority in the Ministry of External Affairs has suspended the validity of passports of Mr Nirav Deepak Modi and Mr Mehul Chinubhai Choksi with immediate effect for a period of four weeks u/s 10(A) of the Passports Act 1967,” said a press release by the MEA.