Case related to allegations of irregularities in loan disbursal & bribery
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, May 23, 2025: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today filed a chargesheet against five accused including public servants Shri George Kuruvilla, then C&MD; Shri W.B. Prasad, then GM and Shri Ashish Pratap Singh, then Legal Advisor, all of BECIL, NOIDA; Shri Prateek Kanakia, CEO - Founder of M/s. TGBL, Mumbai & M/s. The Green Billions Limited, Mumbai in case related to allegations of irregularities in loan disbursal & bribery.
Based on a reference from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, New Delhi, a case was registered by CBI on 03.09.2024 to probe irregularities in sanction and disbursal of a Venture Loan of Rs.50.00 crore by the then C&MD of Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL) to a private company M/s. The Green Billions Limited, Mumbai represented by Shri Prateek Kanakia, CEO & Founder of the said company.
Investigation revealed that during the year 2022, said then C&MD of BECIL entered a criminal conspiracy with then GM, then Legal Advisor of BECIL and said CEO with intent to cheat BECIL to the tune of Rs.50.00 crore on the pretext of sanctioning and disbursing a venture loan of Rs.50.00 crore to accused private Company under a Consortium Agreement dated 10.03.2022 & a General Venture Loan Agreement dated 08.04.2022.
Investigation uncovered that in furtherance of the said criminal conspiracy, the accused officers of BECIL obtained a short term corporate loan of Rs.80.00 crore from IREDA and out of the said loan disbursed Rs.50.00 crore to accused company as venture loan for Waste to Energy project of Pune Municipal Corporation awarded to another private . This amount of Rs.50.00 crore was disbursed in three tranches of Rs.12.50 crore, Rs.17.50 crore and Rs.20.00 crore respectively on 08.04.2022, 20.06.2022 and 29 & 30.12.2022.
Investigation also uncovered that in furtherance of said criminal conspiracy, accused CEO did not utilize 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.2.00 crore in April, 2022 and Rs.1.00 crore April, 2023 to main accused George Kuruvilla then CMD of BECIL.
Investigation unearthed that in furtherance of the said criminal conspiracy, in order to cheat the remaining amount of sanctioned and disbursed loan of Rs.80.00 crore by IREDA to BECIL, accused officers of BECIL sanctioned additional fund of Rs.25.00 crore to accused company Mumbai based private company under Amendment/addendum dated 05.09.2022. 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 28.11.2022 of Rs.25.00 crore purportedly issued from Punjab National Bank, Ghatkopar (East) Branch, Mumbai and after disbursal of the venture loan of Rs.50.00 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. Further, in furtherance of the said criminal conspiracy, accused then CMD George Kuruvilla and then GM W.B. Prasad both of BECIL did not obtain collateral Security from M/s. TGBL accused Mumbai based private company to secure the loan as per the loan agreement and in contravention with the terms and condition of the Venture loan agreement executed in between BECIL and accused Mumbai based firm and thus they caused a wrongful loss of Rs. 58.60 crore to BECIL.
During investigation, then C&MD, then GM and then CEO were arrested and are still in Judicial Custody.
