MUMBAI, May 21: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today filed a petition in the Delhi High Court seeking winding up of CRB Capital Markets Limited (CRBL) and appointment of an official liquidator. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also filed a first information report (FIR) against the absconding company chairman C R Bhansali who defrauded the State Bank of India (SBI) of Rs 57 crore and several small investors all over the country through the fixed deposit scheme.

An RBI statement issued here said the petition filed under the powers vested in the RBI by Section 45 MC (I) of the RBI Act, 1934 is to come up for hearing tomorrow at Delhi HC where the company's registered office is . located. This section enables the RBI to file a winding up petition against a non-banking finance company under the relevant provisions of the Companies Act, 1956, provided it is satisfied among other things that the continuance of the NBFC is detrimental to public interest or to the interest of the company depositors.

Meanwhile, the CBI has alerted all airports and chief vigilance officers and immigration records were being checked to see if Bhansali or his family members had fled the country, said CBI sources.

A CBI team would shortly meet officials of RBI, SBI and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on the CRB issue, sources said.

The investigation agency had last night registered an FIR against Bhansali and ``some officials of SBI'' for conspiracy to cheat the bank.

One CBI official said, ``We do not know how many banks, individuals, depositors or organisations have been cheated since neither his relations nor key employees are traceable''.

According to the FIR, in May 1996, Bhansali approached the SBI to grant them the facility of encashment of interest warrants and warrants of repayment of the principal amount issued by the company towards repayment of fixed deposits, interest payable and brokerage warrants at par through different SBI branches.

The FIR said following SBI permission, the company opened fixed deposit receipt refund order, fixed deposit receipt interest and warrant and brokerage warrant on certain terms and conditions.

These include: that the company deposit an advance of Rs 50 lakh, that is three months outflow of funds on account of repayment deposits and payment of interest amount; submit in advance a list of refund orders/interest warrants issued by the company stating therein the names of payees and amounts; and prefund the accounts ensuring that the accounts have sufficient balance when the warrants are presented for payment.

Initially, CRB capital markets deposited an amount of Rs 50 lakh and a list of refund orders, warrants and also prefunded the account till February 1997. Thereafter, the management stopped providing the list of refund orders, warrants and prefunding the account as required. However, it continued issuing warrants which were encashed through various branches resulting in a debit balance of Rs 1,72,72021.95 as on March 3, 1997 in the accounts of SBI.

The FIR said the SBI officials did not take necessary steps to protect the interest of the bank and neither did they issue necessary instructions to prohibit CRB from encashing the warrants and only connived with him. This resulted in a total wrongful loss of Rs 57 crore to SBI and corresponding wrongful gain to Bhansali and other unknown persons.

It may be recalled that the former SBI chairman M K Sinha joined the CRB group as advisor after retiring from his official position in the SBI.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.