CBI files FIR against rice export firm, executives for over Rs 1,200 crore bank fraud

New Delhi: The CBI has booked Delhi-based Amira Pure Foods Pvt Ltd and its top executives including promoter Karan Chanana and managing director Rajesh Arora for allegedly cheating a consortium of a dozen banks led by Canara Bank to the tune of over Rs 1,200 crore, officials said Thursday. The CBI after filing the FIR on the basis of a complaint from Canara Bank carried out a search operation at eight locations in Delhi and NCR at the premises of the accused named in the FIR, they said. The FIR has named Arora, directors Karan A Chanana, Aparna Puri and Jawahar Kapoor, former director Anita Diang and finance head Akshay Srivastava as accused. The fraud in the 27-year-old company engaged in the export of basmati and non-basmati rice came to notice in a forensic audit on 22 May, 2019. The report alleged that the accused falsified the account, and forged and fabricated the documents in order to gain unlawfully at the cost of bank funds, the officials said. The report red-flagged “glaring irregularities” including cheating, fraud, misappropriation of funds, stock manipulation, diversion of funds, and criminal conspiracy committed by its directors and promoters and other key persons, they said. It said Amira India is the subsidiary of Amira Mauritius which is wholly held by Amira Nature Foods Ltd registered in the British Virgin Islands and headquartered in Dubai. Chanana, who resides outside India, is the main promoter of the company and guides the operations while the Indian operations are handled by managing director Arora who lives in Janakpuri in West Delhi. “All the directors of the company were involved in the conspiracy to cheat the banks and thereby diverted the funds among themselves by various acts, omission and commission and siphoned off the public exchequer,” it said. In its complaint, the bank specifically mentioned that the role of finance head Srivastava needs to be probed.