CBI Files Chargesheet Against Former CMD of BECIL, Others in Corruption Case

The CBI has filed a chargesheet against George Kuruvilla, former chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of BECIL, and others in connection with alleged bribery of Rs 3 crore and fraudulent disbursal of loan to a Mumbai-based firm TGBL, officials said Friday.

The agency arrested Kuruvilla in April this year after nearly seven months of probe in the FIR registered by it. Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL) is a public sector enterprise under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

In its findings submitted to a special court in Mumbai, the CBI has also named the then General Manager of BECIL WB Prasad, then Legal Advisor of the company, Ashish Pratap Singh, private company The Green Billions Limited (TGBL) and its then CEO Prateek Kanakia, they said.

The CBI had registered an FIR in the case in September last year and went on to arrest Kuruvilla, Prasad and Kanakia this year in connection with the case, officials said.

According to the CBI chargesheet, the trio entered into a "criminal conspiracy" in 2022 "to cheat BECIL to the tune of Rs 50 crore on the pretext of sanctioning and disbursing a venture loan of Rs 50 crore" to TGBL under a consortium agreement dated March 10, 2022 and a General Venture Loan Agreement dated April 8, 2022.

The CBI investigation showed that they obtained a short term corporate loan of Rs 80 crore from IREDA, out of which they disbursed Rs 50 crore to TGBL as venture loan for waste-to-energy project of Pune Municipal Corporation.

"This amount of Rs 50 crore was disbursed in three tranches of Rs 12.50 crore, Rs 17.50 crore and Rs 20 crore respectively on April 8, 2022, June 20, 2022 and December 29 & 30, 2022," a CBI spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.

The agency also found that Kanakia did not utilise the disbursed fund in the project for which the funds were released, instead, he diverted most of the funds to his own use and "paid undue advantage of Rs 2 crore in April, 2022 and Rs 1 crore April, 2023 to main accused George Kuruvilla, then CMD of BECIL," it said.

It said the accused officials sanctioned and disbursed additional loan of Rs 25 crore to TGBL from the Rs 80 crore given by IREDA to BECIL, it said.

"Further, the original documents related to project at BECIL were destroyed by the accused persons. Investigation uncovered that these accused persons received a forged Performance Bank Guarantee dated November 28, 2022 of Rs 25 crore purportedly issued from Punjab National Bank, Ghatkopar (East) Branch, Mumbai and after disbursal of the venture loan of Rs 50 crore, they did not ensure end use of the fund for the given purpose and accused CEO did not repay the outstanding loan amount to BECIL," the CBI statement said.

The agency found that Kuruvilla and Prasad did not obtain collateral security from TGBL to secure the loan as per the loan agreement and in contravention with the terms and condition of the Venture loan agreement executed between BECIL and TGBL, it said.