New Delhi: The founder of ABG Shipyard Limited, Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal was arrested by the CBI on Wednesaday  in connection with an alleged bank fraud of more than Rs 22,842 crore.
The central probe agency) had earlier registered case against Agarwal, a former chairman of the company, the then executive director Santhanam Muthaswamy, and directors Ashwini Kumar, Sushil Kumar Agarwal and Ravi Vimal Nevetia on February 7.
Agarwal was arrested after the CBI officials suspected his non-coperation with the investigation and was evasive in responses..
The CBI had registered the case on a complaint from the State Bank of India for the alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and abuse of official position under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act, they said.
The SBI with an exposure of Rs 2,468.51 crore was part of a consortium of 28 banks and financial institutions led by ICICI Bank, the officials said.
The ABG Shipyard being a major player in Indian ship building industry operated from its shipyards located at Dahej and Surat in Gujarat with capacity to build vessels up to 18,000 dead weight tonnage (DWT) at Surat shipyard and 1,20,000 dead weight tonnage (DWT) at Dahej shipyard.
The company, which had witnessed phenomenal rise having constructed 165 vessels in 16 years, started showing stress following global slump in the shipping industry bringing irregularities in repayment schedule.
