The Jaisalmer Sadar police on Sunday, October 31 arrested Pratip Chaudhuri, former Chairman of the State Bank of India, in a case related to a loan scam. He was arrested from his residence in Delhi after his involvement was speculated in a loan scam of a private hotel in Jaisalmer.
The loan scam case is associated with properties owned by the Godawan Group. The properties with an estimated worth of Rs 200 crore were sold for just Rs 24 crore after they were seized by the bank when the group failed to make the repayment of the loan in time.
The arrest was made after an arrest warrant was issued by the Chief Judicial Magistrate court in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan against accused Pratip Chaudhuri, Alok Dhir, RK Kapur, SV Venkatakrishnan, Sasi Methadil, Devendra Jain and Tarun and Vijay Kishore Saxena.
However, one of the accused in the case, Alok Dhir of the Alchemist ARC Company, managed to flee the police before an arrest could be made.
According to police reports, Godawan Group had acquired a loan of Rs 24 crore from the State Bank of India for the construction of a hotel in Jaisalmer in 2008. When the group was unable to pay back the loan, the hotel in Jaisalmer, along with another hotel operated by the group were seized by SBI on account of them being considered as non-performing assets by the lender.
The properties were then sold to Alchemist ARC company for Rs 25 crores in 2016, following which the Godawan Group appealed to the court. Pratip Chaudhuri was acting as the Chairman of SBI during the period.
