Kothari and his son arrested by CBI

DAINIK NATION BUREAU

After four days questioning the CBI on Thursday arrested Rotomac pen company owner Vikram Kothari and his son Rahul on charges of cheating a consortium of banks of Rs 3,695 crore (including interest) by siphoning off loans sanctioned to his company for procurement of wheat and other goods for export.  Earlier CBI had confiscated his and his family’s belonging including mobile and laptop.

CBI had lodged FIR against Kothari and his family  on Sunday night and since then Kotharis’ were being questioned and raided their residential and office premises in Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

A complaint against Kothari, his wife Sadhana and son Rahul, lodged by the Bank of Baroda. Kothari is the CMD of Rotomac while his wife and son are Directors.

Kothari had obtained Rs 2,919 crore from Bank of India (Rs 754.77 crore), Bank of Baroda (Rs 456.63 crore), Indian Overseas Bank (Rs 771.07 crore), Union Bank of India (Rs 458.95 crore), Allahabad Bank (Rs 330.68 crore), Bank of Maharashtra (Rs 49.82 crore) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (Rs 97.47 crore), the FIR said.

Kothari, his wife, son, firm Rotomac, some unidentified bank officials and private persons were booked on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery under the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act.

The Bank of Baroda complaint said that the banks had extended credit to the Kanpur-based firm and its related companies from 2008 onwards.