A case has been lodged at the Ramsanehi Ghat police station night under IPC sections including 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged), reports the Indian Express. The Barabanki Police, stated the news report, lodged a case on Thursday night against eight people “who were members of a committee”, this includes a former UP Sunni Central Waqf Board inspector, accusing them of “fraud and cheating” reportedly to get the mosque that was demolished registered as a Waqf property.

The Gareeb Nawaz Masjid that had existed peacefully in Ram Sanehi Ghat, a city in Barabanki, in Uttar Pradesh, for decades, was demolished earlier this week. The destruction of the Mosque was reportedly in violation of a High Court order that had said no action was to be taken till the end of May. This demolition has had a massive impact on the community in Uttar Pradesh, already a communally sensitive state. The Guardian had put the report under the global spotlight saying this is “one of the most inflammatory actions taken against a Muslim place of worship since the demolition of the Babri Mosque by a mob of Hindu nationalist rioters in 1992.”

While the district administration continues to maintain that the mosque was an “illegal construction”, it is on the records of the Sunni Central Waqf Board documents as ‘Tehsil Masjid’ for the last six decades, reported the BBC. Those in charge of the mosque told the media that it is even older, as the record books came into existence much later than the structure. The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board has called the administration’s action illegal, and is likely to challenge it in the High Court, stated the news report. 

However, according to the Indian Express report, now the Ramsanehi Ghat Station House Officer (SHO) Sachidanand Rai said that those named in the FIR had “fraudulently got a structure in the tehsil premises registered as a Waqf property” adding that. “In order to do so, they had formed a committee.” The FIR names committee president Mushtaq Ali, vice president Waqeel Ahmad, secretary Mohamad Aneesh, members Dastageer, Afzaal, Mohammad Naseem, and then UP Sunni Central Waqf Board Inspector Mohammad Taha stated the IE, adding that according to the complaint lodged by District Minority Welfare Officer Sonu Kumar, the alleged “fraudulent registration” was done in 2019. 

The IE quotes from the complaint: “This is to bring to your notice that these people formed a committee and then through cheating and fraud got a structure registered as a Waqf property on January 5, 2019. The structure is within the Ramsanehi Ghat tehsil and is opposite the SDM residence… These facts have come to light in a probe done by Tehsildar Ramsnehi Ghat. This was done under a conspiracy, which included these people and also then UP Sunni Central Waqf Board Inspector Mohammad Taha.”

Meanwhile, the Sunni Central Waqf Board has already stated that it will move the High Court demanding “restoration of the mosque, a high level judicial inquiry and action against the guilty officials”.

Related:

Barabanki mosque demolition: UP Sunni Central Waqf Board to approach High Court

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A day after Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) national spokesperson Manoj Jha accused officials of the Chief Minister’s office of pressuring Election Commission officials to declare results in favour of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has come out to openly challenge election results.

Speaking to media-persons in Patna, Yadav said, “We’ve won 130 seats and the mandate was in our favour, but the Election Commission’s results were declared in favour of NDA.” He alleged counting irregularities took place in connection with 20 seats. Earlier the party had approached the Election Commission (EC) but their claims were dismissed.

“We lost about 20 seats where irregularities took place in counting postal ballots and our candidates’ queries were not heard by the Election Commission,” claimed Yadav, further asking, “Why were the postal ballots counted at night and were the guidelines followed?”

The party has now demanded video footage of counting.

कई और क्षेत्रों में सांसदों की अनाधिकृत मौजूदगी की शिकायत आ रही है।पूरी मतगणना के वीडियो फुटेज जारी होने चाहिए। @CEOBihar @ECISVEEP https://t.co/4In8EMf8H0

— Manoj Kumar Jha (@manojkjhadu) November 13, 2020

High drama had ensued on counting day with result declaration taking what many felt an inordinate amount of time, thus forcing EC officials to address a press conference where they clarified that the number of polling booths had gone up in order to ensure social distancing in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to a larger number of Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) being used. Additionally, postal ballots were used by voters above the age of 80 and those needed to be counted.

Moreover, counting was taking place in 55 locations, up from the previous 38. At each location, counting was taking place in more than one hall and there were 14 tables in each location. There were anywhere between 19 to 55 rounds of counting in different locations at the time of EC’s press conference at about 1:30 PM on counting day.

But Manoj Jha alleged in an interview to BBC, “From 1:30 PM to 5 PM the victory numbers remained frozen. This is not possible in dynamic counting. This was done to suppress our numbers and manipulate the polls.” Jha further alleged, “My Hilsa candidate was told he had won by 566 votes and asked to take the certificate. But even as he was waiting for the certificate, he was told that he had lost by 8 votes!” He also claimed recounting requests by RJD were denied, but when BJP-JD(U) asked for recounts in places where RJD had won, their request was granted. But the EC has dismissed Jha’s allegations.

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Bihar Elections: Deconstructing the Muslim monolith

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Last week, Karnataka Bank, reported a fraud of Rs. 40.39 crore in the credit facilities to Hanung Toys and Textiles Ltd, on account of diversion of funds, which has been declared a non-performing borrowing account, the Deccan Herald reported.

Hanung Toys and Textiles Ltd dealing with the bank since 2008 had availed various credit facilities under consortium arrangement since 2008 where Karnataka Bank was one of the member banks.

The company owes Rs. 2,300 crore to a consortium of 15 lenders led by state-own Punjab National Bank, which alone has an exposure of Rs. 599 crore.

“On the basis of forensic auditor’s report submitted to the consortium, some of the member banks have reported to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regarding fraud in the borrowing account.

“In line with the Consortium decision, Karnataka Bank has reported to RBI a fraud amounting to Rs 40.39 crore in the credit facilities extended earlier to the borrowing account, on account of diversion of funds,” Karnataka Bank said.

The bank said that Hanung Toys and Textiles had been classified as a non-performing asset (NPA) in July 2015 and had been fully provided for and as such, no negative impact on the bank’s profitability at present.

Several other banks too have declared Hanung Toys and Textiles Ltd to be a wilful defaulter.

Hanung Toys and Textiles Limited

Hanung Toys is promoted by Ashok Kumar Bansal. He has been an IKEA supplier for 15 years and his company had been in the news for a hefty order worth Rs. 600 crore by the Swedish retailer in 2007.

Its toy manufacturing units are set up in the Noida Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and its production units include facilities in Roorkee, Bhiwandi and Noida set up to make toys and home furnishings.

In 2018, PNB had taken Hanung Toys and Textiles Ltd to the bankruptcy courts for unpaid loans. The PNB-led consortium of lenders had collectively loaned the amount to the toy-maker around three years ago in debt restructuring for around 1,800 crore.

In November 2019, authorities detained Ashok Kumar Bansal and his wife Anju Bansal, who were on their way back from Dubai, at the Delhi Airport following a lookout notice issued by the Punjab National Bank.

The Free Press Journal reported that a corporate debt restructuring plan crafted by the company four years ago failed to take off as Ashok Bansal, the Chairman couldn’t bring in his share of equity which stood at Rs. 82 crore which led to an increase in outstanding dues to Rs. 2,300 crore.

Wilful defaulter

In November 2019, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released a list of top 30 wilful defaulters in response to an RTI application filed by The Wire. The application came in four years after the Supreme Court had directed the RBI to disclose a list of wilful defaulters in India. While MehulChoksi’sGitanjali Gems stood at the top with a default amount of Rs. 5,044 crore, Hanung Toys and Textiles showed a default amount worth Rs. 949 crore.

The corporate debt restructuring (CDR) cell in 2015 had pointed out that according to data, every three cases approved for debt repair under the CDR mechanism had failed and exited the cell. In July that year, Hanung Toys and Textiles Ltd had exited the cell after failing to implement the CDR package.

The reasons for this, sources told Livemint were that failures occurred mostly due to the promoter’s inability to bring in his share of contribution apart (as was in the case of Ashok Bansal) from the company’s inability to meet business projections.

Karnataka Bank fraud list

Apart from the recent fraud reported by the bank in the case of wilful defaulting by Hanung Toys and Textiles Ltd, the bank in November had reported a fraud of Rs. 13.36 crore on account of diversion of funds, in the working capital facility extended to SRS Finance Ltd.

In 2018, it had reported a fraud totaling Rs. 86.47 crore in loans extended under consortium agreements to MehulChoksi’sGitanjali Gems. In a BSE filing it said, “The bank has reported a fraud to Reserve Bank of India amounting to Rs86.47 crore in the fund based working capital facilities extended to Gitanjali Gems Limited on account of non-realization of exports bills and diversion of funds.”

This year, the RBI had slapped a fine of Rs. 4 crore on the bank for violating regulatory norms. The charge was levied due to the failure of the bank with regards to the delay in implementation of four of the Swift related operational controls.

In July this year, the bank launched a web tool named VASOOL SO-Ft (VASOOL SO FAST) to digitalise the NPA recovery process.

The bank has reported a 5.3 percent year-on-year decline in its net profit at Rs. 105.91 crore for the quarter that ended in Sept 30, 2019. Even with the regulatory disclosures on bad loans, the bank was working to keep its NPAs below five percent. CEO & MD MAhabalaeshwara MS had told Business Standard last year, “There was actually no pain in the sense that we have exposure to some corporates through the consortium. With the change in NPA recognition norm, we had to recognise a few of those accounts as NPA because of default by these groups on loans from other banks. We took this opportunity to clean up our balance sheet and make adequate provisions.”

This year, the percentage of its NPAs rose to 4.78 percent against 4.66 percent in the same quarter last year, with values standing at Rs. 2,594.27 crore this year against Rs. 2,371.62 crore last year.

NPAs haunting Indian banks

In response to an RTI application filed by CNN-News 18, the Indian banking system, in the past three years has lost Rs. 1.76 lakh crore for writing off non-performing loans to 525 defaulters, with each of the defaulters owing Rs. 100 crore or more.

The responses to the RTI showed that there had been a constant increase in the amount written off by commercial banks since 2014 – 15 with the sharpest upsurge in 2017 and 2018, post demonetization.

In 2015, loans to the tune of Rs. 40,798 crore were written off. This number increased to Rs. 69,976 crore in 2016, Rs. 127,797 crore in 2017 and Rs. 217,121 lakh crore in 2018.

Newsclick reports that the write-offs are in accordance with an RBI directive that had asked the scheduled commercial banks to come clear on the amount to be written off and set the accounts straight. These write offs simply meant the uncollectible debt.

The State Bank of India (SBI) had written off the highest amounts of such bad loans, followed by PNB, IDBI, Bank of India, Corporation Bank, Bank of Baroda, Central Bank of India, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank.

After the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC) Bank scam worth over Rs. 6,000 crore rocked the country, political interference has emerged as one of the main obstructions in clearing up sheets and restoring the health of banks. Though the RBI has taken steps in the right direction – taking wilful defaulters to insolvency courts, will it actually be able to pull up big ticket defaulters like Hanung Toys or Gitanjali Gems by staying autonomous and out of the unholy nexus between the government and the corporates?

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