Wrong doings of bank officers

[tigerranch]

Dear All

I am Kishor Chhabria

I have lost my entire business due to wrong doings of bank officers.

I need a lot of information from the banks.

I have been browsing through this forum and am happy to be here.

Regards

Kishor

[jps50]

Sponsorer

You may study various links posted on home page of this portal for filing RTI.

[syed2011]

Dear All

I am Kishor Chhabria

I have lost my entire business due to wrong doings of bank officers.

I need a lot of information from the banks.

I have been browsing through this forum and am happy to be here.

Regards

Kishor

What kind of business was your's and how did the bank officers play the role in demonstrating your business .. Any detail info from your side .. only if you want to share

[jj99]

what kind of records you require which will prove wrong doing by Bank

[tigerranch]

Date…. 17/05/2012

To The Chairman
IDBI/UNION BANK OF INDIA
Mumbai

Dear Sir.

Sleepins apparels Pvt Ltd (SAPL)..Brand Sleep-ins ..Kishor Chhabria was the CMD and Nishant Chhabria was the director operations, Sleep-ins was the leading nightwear brand in the country having a pan India presence of more than 30 stores across the country plus available with all chain stores and more than 500 MBO’s

In 2008-09 SAPL was sitting on a top line of 85 crores with a bottom line of about 5% PAT and a working capital of app 13 crores. The bankers to SAPL then were Zoroastrian bank, Barclays and HSBC. As the existing banks could not raise the working capital we had to approach nationalized banks for our exposure as we had targeted a top line of about 150 crores for 2009-10.

Having a spotless background in the banking industry for over 50 years and after proper due diligence SAPL was sanctioned working capital from IDBI and Union bank for 19 crores in January 2009. UBI was the lead banker. Both the banks downloaded 18 crores immediately and one crore of working capital was yet to be down loaded and we were very much comfortable and the sale kept growing. Our relationship with both these banks was new. Union bank had also sanctioned Rs 65 lacs for our factory as term loan.

In the year 2008-09 prior to the sanction I was called upon to meet Mr. Nille AGM and Mr. Thakur DGM of Union bank of India at the nodal office Pune immediately on principal sanction of financial assistance from both UBI and IDBI. After an hour of negotiations over interest rates charged and collateral security required by the banks against the sanction of 19 crores app.

SAPL agreed to give first charge over factory at 2333 Ubale Nagar Pune to UBI as they had sanctioned a term loan of 65 lacs against this property. SAPL also after negotiations with the DGM and AGM agreed to mortgage 303 Sq Ft of the total property of 1133 Sq Ft consisting of 438 Sq Ft, on the ground floor, 265 Sq Ft on the mezzanine floor, 280 Sq Ft on the first floor and 150 Sq Ft of front parking. In all 303 Sq Ft was mortgaged with UBI out of the 1133 sq ft of the total property situated at Laxmi road. The understanding with UBI was that this 303 Sq Ft will be shared with IDBI on First Pari Pasu basis. Mr. K.B. Kulkarni and N.D. Khedkar of UBI were responsible to create the equitable mortgage between Kishor Chhabria and UBI.

Ibrahim Somji and Jean Somji were 21.6% share holders and had invested 4.8 crores and a term sheet was made in 2007. As per the term sheet the investors would exit on an IPO by SAPL. Also as per the main clause of the term sheet if SAPL doesn’t do an IPO in 2009 SAPL had to pay the investors 24% compounded interest on their investment and return the amount by December 2009. This term sheet was discussed with Zoroastrian bank our lead banker in 2007 at the time of infusion of funds by investors and Zoroastrian Bank had agreed to the terms and a certified copy of this term sheet was handed over to the Manager of Zoroastrian bank in 2007, but while taking over the SAPL account from Zoroastrian Bank in 2009, the DGM Renu Seth of IDBI didn’t bother to take over any of the documents from Zoroastrian Bank in 2009 or understand the past history of SAPL from the earlier bankers.

BCCL the leading media group had also invested 4 crores as equity in SAPL.

The directors of SAPL and their family had enough funds on the balance sheet which actually were salaries and rentals paid by SAPL to the directors. But SAPL being our own company we had parked all our salaries and rentals as unsecured funds on the balance sheet. The total amount was 284.14 lacs.

In September 2008 due to the melt down Mr. Somji wanted his investment back as it didn’t seem SAPL will do an IPO in 2009 due to the meltdown. So on a few rounds of meetings and negotiations SAPL came to a figure of 50% of the principal amount as settlement figure and an agreement was made and the investors were paid 2.4 crores in February 2009. SAPL found this negotiation very lucrative and the company was saving around 5 crores with principal amount and interest together which was a profit to SAPL.

At the time of sanction IDBI in there sanction letter had stated that on expiry SAPL had to insure the insurance policies with IDBI channel, but on sanction the DGM of IDBI Renu Seth and Ravindra Bondre forced SAPL to close the Clola Mundalum policies prematurely and insure with Bajaj Allianz. This is a criminal breach of trust.

On submitting the stock statement to UBI/IDBI for the month of February Renu Seth immediately send Bajaj Allianz representative to SAPL and the policies were topped up and during this exercise Bajaj Allianz had inspected and verified SAPL stocks and pictures of the ware house were taken and the stock for 21 crores was declared by SAPL and the amount of the policy was paid by cheque through IDBI account.

On the 18th of March 2009 officers of both IDBI and UBI had visited SAPL at the ware house for inspection as this was mandatory for them to inspect the stock as per stock statement submitted. And both the banks had issued a stock verification certificate to SAPL for stocks valued at 18.14 crores.

On 20th March 2009 SAPL ware house and factory building was gutted down due to a natural calamity where the building collapsed and fire lasted for app 20 hours with physical losses estimated to the tune of 25 crores.

The surveyors appointed by Bajaj Allianz were present on the site of fire on the 21st of morning and after investigating they send us the requirements and though we had lost all the documents in fire we did collect all the requirements from various agencies, vendors and all previous and current bankers to SAPL and submitted all the documents to the surveyors time to time.
On the 26th of October 2009 the surveyors sanctioned SAPL the FFF and building claim of Rs 72 lacs. And subsequently on 12th March 2010 they sanctioned SAPL an amount of Rs 82 lacs for stock working against a claim of Rs 19 crores.

But Bajaj Allianz Channel partner of IDBI would not validate the stock certificates given by IDBI and UBI where both banks are government owned banks and Bajaj Allianz was not willing to talk or communicate with SAPL. So I wrote them a mail ……. This working and investigation of your company is most unscientific & irrational as well as capricious working without any basis. This confirms that the exercise carried out about documents submission & various meetings, was just an eye wash to delay/deny the settlement which raises a serious doubt about the proficiency of the three surveyors and Bajaj Allianz.

Upon receiving this mail Bajaj Allianz repudiated the claim on 26/6/2010.

I then approached the National Commission and filed a suit against Bajaj Allianz for a claim of Rs 19.14 crores. Here too I send several mails to UBI/IDBI officers to co-operate, but both banks denied even to have a meeting and didn’t reply my mails and phone calls.
There are documents available with me to show that the officials of IDBI and Union Bank of India were discussing directly with Bajaj Allianz officials of settling the SAPL stock claim at 3 crores prior to the sanction of 82 lacs. This was without the consent or knowledge of SAPL and when I asked the officers that how they can speak directly to the insurer when SAPL is the insured and I was kept out of this important communication, the officers didn’t reply on this point. It also came as a shock to me as the company was kept in the dark at that point.

In another incident the General Manager of IDBI Mr. Niranjan Mathure had also informed the surveyors of Bajaj Allianz to directly communicate with the insured and not the banks for any requirement but the DGM Renu Seth and AGM Ravindra Bondre of IDBI and DGM S.K.Bhargava and AGM Eknath Patil of UBI were meddling with the surveyors and Bajaj Allianz officials and are the principal cause of the repudiation of the claim. At this point I reiterate the fact that it was Renu Seth and Ravindra Bondre who had forced SAPL to prematurely close the existing policies with Chola Mandalum and shift to Bajaj Allianz at the time of the sanction of the funds. SAPL has reasons to believe that Bajaj Allianz and the officers of IDBI and Union Bank of India were hand in glove in repudiation of the claim.

Meanwhile SAPL was regularly meeting both the bankers and discussing the way forward. We were pushing ourselves very hard with our supply chain and feeding our stores with stocks, there was no WC and the banks didn’t help us at all. There was a balance of 100 lacs out of the sanction of both the banks to be downloaded yet. We wrote several letters to both IDBI/UBI to help us in this situation and not mark us NPA. But the officers would not co-operate and marked us NPA and started the DRT process against us. And since then both IDBI and UBI have been threatening me with criminal proceedings.

We also wrote several letters to IDBI as they were channel partners of Bajaj Allianz to help us and resolve the issue. But there was no hope from IDBI

Meanwhile Renu Seth of IDBI filled a criminal complaint with the Economic Offence Wing that we have siphoned and amount of 2.4 crores which was paid to Mr. Somji. But upon investigation for about a month the IO gave SAPL a clean chit.
The directors used 240 lacs out of the 284.14 lacs. As such the entire salaries and rentals were used for Company profits and payment of wages as stipulated under the terms of loan and there was no violation of any condition as alleged by IDBI and Renu Seth.

By what stretch of imagination can this part of the transaction be termed to be fraudulent or misappropriation of funds?

Inspite of the EOW giving a cleen chit to SAPL, Renu Seth and Ravindra Bondre of IDBI bank were not satisfied with the report of the EOW and filed a criminal complaint with the JMFC where an order was passed by the Ld Magistrate to register an FIR with the Yerwada police station.

On the 24th of July 2011, 20 armed police officers came to my residence and both the directors Anita Chhabria my wife and Neha Chhabria my daughter were arrested and taken to the police station in a caged wan. Next morning we were produced in court before the magistrate and were handed back to the Investigation Officer on remand for 4 days. The next morning the local news media carried the news about our arrest the news also mentioned that the fire has been fabricated by the directors of the company and that we have duped IDBI and UBI of Rs 20 crores and the amount has been transferred to the various accounts of family and friends..

The Yerwada Police Station then based on the complain by IDBI and Renu Seth and statements given by other officers of IDBI/UBI/BAJAJ ALLIANZ scrutinized every aspect and visited our ware house and several statements were recorded and we were released on bail on the 28th of July. And since our release we were called upon to the police station practically every day for hours together and presented all required documents to the investigation officer. Then on investigation for 3 months the IO didn’t find any criminal action or foul play by the directors and after the said investigation it was revealed by the concerned police station that the fire had taken place due to short circuit.

The IO filed his report in the JMFC with the Magistrate in October 2011 requesting the Magistrate to release the directors under section 169 of CRPC with “B” summary which states that the complaint by IDBI and Renu Seth is False.

The IO has also investigated further and various statements were recorded and he reported that there was stock of 19 crores in the ware house on the day of fire… As such investigation was conducted through two independent investigating agencies and both have concluded that no offences are made out under the facts and circumstances of the matter.

IDBI also filed a winding petition in the HIGH COURT and orders have been passed and liquidator is appointed.

Meanwhile on 12th January 2012, Union bank of India with an order from the District Magistrate came to take over possession of the 303 Sq Ft of the property mortgaged, but the officers of IDBI/UBI forcefully and illegally took over the possession of the entire 1133 Sq Ft, which is criminal breach of trust.

I then appointed Majeed Memon and Zulfiquar MMemon as our lawyer and counselor for quashing of the original criminal complaint by IDBI bank and Renu Seth against the directors and others. And the honorable High Court has passed a reasoned order consisting of brief background of proceedings.

IDBI has marked SAPL as a fraud account and UBI has declared SAPL as willful defaulter. All this manipulation of stories, facts and figures are blown out of proportion and were done at the behest of Renu Seth and Ravindra Bondre of IDBI and Mr. S.K.Bhargava, Mr Eknath Patil and Mr. Palshikar of UBI with a vindictive approach and we were harassed, humiliated and defamed for personal vendetta.

Even with all this drama going on in Pune in the month of April 2012, I visited both IDBI and UBI head office in Mumbai recovery department and met Ashok Kumar De of IDBI and Mr. Sahani of UBI and offered an OTS proposal. But both the officers rejected my proposal.

I have written various letters to IDBI/UBI for want of information under the RTI act. But the DGM of both the banks have refused to reply or forward the information up to date. {As per Provision of Section 7(1) of the RTI Act 2005, you are bound to give information within 48 Hours of receipt of the application, otherwise, Violation of Constitution of India & Violation of Law shall lie on the officials of your bank, which shall attract serious criminal offence under Indian Penal Code and Miscellaneous Laws}


A reply to this letter is awaited for 7 days or I will be forced to take criminal action against UBI/IDBI for giving a false complaint where we were arrested and in custody for 5 days and the local news media blowing up our arrest and allegations were made that the fire at SAPL was fabricated by the directors. I will also be forced to take action against both banks for illegally taking possession of 1133 sq ft of property against a mortgaged 303 Sq Ft. I will also be forced to take action against the Managing Directors of the banks as power of attorney has been handed over to all these officers for taking such harsh steps. I will also be forced to write a complaint to RBI and the banking ombudsman. I will also lodge a complaint with the consumer court for damages, as a multi crore company with a top line of 80 crores and a pat of 5 to 6% has been killed due to wrong doings of your officers. And lastly I will meet the media and do a press conference.

The reputation and the brand image of Sleep-ins and its directors which was valued in multiple of crores has been erased by the wrong doings of a few officers of you prestigious bank.

I am sure you will look into the matter personally and reply.

Thank you.
Regards

Kishor Chhabria

Ex director
Sleepins apparels pvt ltd.
Pune.

CC. Finance Minister.
CC. GM IDBI Pune…. GM UBI Pune…. Chief Editor Times of India… CC Chief Editor DNA… Chief Editor Sakal Times…