74.8cr bank fraud case: Court rejects firm MD's discharge plea

Mumbai: Observing that the material placed on record shows there was criminal intent in his acts that led to defrauding UCO Bank of Rs 74.8 crore, a special CBI court rejected the discharge plea of Abhay Lodha, promoter and MD of Topworth Steels and Power and Topworth Group.
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The judge said while Lodha may not be the director of Akshata Mercantile Pvt Ltd (AMPL), allegedly involved in the fraud, the investigating officer collected material that showed it was a firm in Topworth Group of Companies, of which he is the chairman. The judge said he has direct control over AMPL's business affairs. "Throughout the investigation, it was revealed that Abhay Lodha was the prime accused and without his [involvement], the crime could not have been committed.
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An FIR invoking cheating charges was lodged against Lodha in 2020.
Opposing the discharge plea, the CBI said Lodha has been named in chargesheets of six cases. "The modus operandi in all the cases is similar... Abhay Lodha incorporated various companies by making his employees or friends as its directors and fraudulently availed LC (letter of credit) facilities from various banks. Subsequently, without any genuine underlying transactions, these companies submitted the LC-backed bills, along with forged lorry receipts, for discounting, and the discounted proceeds of the bills were utilised for the purpose of companies of Topworth Group controlled by Abhay Lodha," it said.
It was alleged that Rs 43 lakh from the defrauded sum was used to pay EMIs of a Union Bank of India home loan in the names of Lodha and co-accused Ashwin Lodha.
The court pointed to the statement of the bank's chief manager, who handled the vigilance department, saying there was large-scale unauthorised fund movement in the account of Topworth Group of Companies by way of unauthorised LC discounting.

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