Faridabad-based crony of PM fled India after ripping banks of ₹6,978 crore: Congress

Accusing the PMO and the Finance Ministry of maintaining silence on the Faridabad based SRS Group defrauding banks, including the State Bank of India of ₹6,978 Crore, the Indian National Congress on Monday demanded that the Government break its silence and reveal why it allowed three people associated with the SRs Group to flee from the country.

INC spokesman Randeep Surjewala told the media that while one of the kingpins Anil Jindal was arrested in April this year, three others, namely JK Garg, PK Kapoor and Prateek Jindal (Anil’s son) , were allowed to escape from the country.

The Jindal family, he said, enjoyed close relations with the Prime Minister in Delhi and Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar. As many as 22 cases of cheating and fraud were registered against Anil Jindal by Faridabad Police.

Surjewala also charged the Government of arm-twisting the Life Insurance Corporation into buying the state owned IDBI bank, which has performed poorly. While policy holders of LIC will pay for the bank’s losses, NPAs and amounts written off, the Government will gain by pocketing the sales by way of disinvestment, he pointed out.

As early as in August last year, he claimed, whistle blowers had informed the Government of as many as 250 shell companies floated by the Group to launder money. The Group had also fraudulently initiated bankruptcy proceedings against its own shell companies in order to evade its liabilities, he stated.There was evidence to suggest that the Group was guilty of money laundering while selling off its Sharjah based subsidiary SRS Worldwide to Vihaan Impex.

The Group had also made forays into real estate but left the investors and flat owners high and dry following violation of statutory rules. Hundreds of flat owners residing in SRS Royal Hills in sector 87 of Faridabad have been served with eviction notice for no fault of theirs, he claimed.

Pointing out that banking frauds during the last few years had exceeded ₹70,000 Crore, Surjewala wondered why as many as 17 banks defrauded did not refer the cases to CBI, ED or even the RBI.