CBI registers FIR against Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra over alleged Rs 1,322-crore fraud

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered an FIR against Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra and three others on Saturday over an alleged Rs 1,322-crore fraud involving LIC Housing Finance (LICHFL), officials said.

According to the FIR, the case centres on allegations that Chandra inflated his net worth in certificates submitted to LICHFL to secure approval and disbursal of two loans totalling Rs 980 crore, which subsequently went into default. There was no immediate reaction from Chandra or the other accused named in the FIR.

The complaint concerns a Rs 500-crore facility extended to Vasant Sagar Properties Pvt Ltd, with Pan India Infra Projects Pvt Ltd as co-borrower, and a Rs 480-crore facility extended to Digital Subscriber Management and Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd, with Spirit Infra Power and Multi Ventures Pvt Ltd as co-borrower.

The Rs 500-crore Vasant Sagar facility was sanctioned as a home entity loan for takeover, top-up and business expansion, and was secured by a continuing guarantee dated March 28, 2018, executed by Chandra, the FIR alleged. The Rs 480-crore Digital facility was sanctioned as a rental discounting facility under a rental securitisation scheme, and was also secured by a continuing guarantee executed by Chandra.

LICHFL told investigators that the net worth certificate submitted by Chandra for the Vasant Sagar facility was issued by DIM & Co on March 28, 2018, certifying his net worth at around Rs 59,000 crore. The Digital facility, it said, was sanctioned partly on the basis of another certificate issued by chartered accountants MPJ & Co on July 6, 2018, putting his net worth at Rs 40,562 crore.

According to the FIR, during subsequent proceedings under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, Chandra denied having the net worth stated in the certificates submitted to LICHFL. During those proceedings, he pegged his net worth in 2024 at Rs 31.79 crore, and said his net worth in 2017-18 was no more than Rs 40,000 crore — figures the FIR contrasts with the certificates used to secure the loans.

The FIR alleged that Chandra acted in collusion with the four borrower entities — Vasant Sagar Properties Pvt Ltd, Pan India Infraprojects Pvt Ltd, Digital Subscriber Management and Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd, and Spirit Infrapower and Multiventures Pvt Ltd — and their officers and directors to defraud LICHFL into advancing the loans, funds which have since been misappropriated. It further alleged that Chandra created false documents denoting an inflated and false net worth to cheat LICHFL into deploying the funds, and that the accused breached the trust reposed in them by the lender.

The complaint comes three days after Chandra opposed the constitution of a five-member bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to hear his personal insolvency case.

Earlier on Tuesday, a special five-member NCLT bench stayed approval of a repayment plan, noting that the earlier opinion did not have a clear majority, and restrained the Essel Group founder and chairman from alienating any asset.

Last week, NCLT judicial member Nilesh Sharma, ruling as a third member, had approved the repayment plan proposed by Chandra under Section 114 of the IBC and rejected the dissenting lenders' objections. Two members of the tribunal had earlier given a split verdict, following which the forum's president appointed Sharma as the third member.

The plan involved Rs 6.25 crore from Chandra personally as guarantor, along with Rs 1,494 crore to be paid separately by the principal borrowing companies, according to an ET Bureau report. It was backed by creditors holding 80.8 per cent of the voting share, while LICHFL, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, RBL Bank and Union Bank voted against it.

LICHFL, as a dissenting creditor, had argued that against its admitted claims of about Rs 22,006 crore, the plan offered a mere Rs 6.25 crore to creditors, calling the proposal "unviable and unlawful."

The case stems from a public backlash after details of Chandra's personal insolvency process emerged, in which creditors had approved a settlement of Rs 6.5 crore against admitted claims of Rs 22,000 crore against his personal guarantees.