Three ex-PSU officials held in Rs 464-crore export scam

KOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday rounded up three former officials of Metal and Scrap Trading Corporation (MSTC) - a public sector undertaking - in connection with the Rs 464-crore export scam. All three officials, who are based in Kolkata, were remanded to CBI custody till May 10 on Thursday.
CBI spokesperson said that a special team from Anti Corruption Branch of Mumbai rounded up former chairman and managing director of MSTC, Moloy Sengupta, former chief general manager Tapas Basu and insurance consultant S K Sinha.While Basu and Sengupta were rounded up from the city, Sinha was arrested in Delhi. MSTC has their main office in central Kolkata.
CBI officers said that all three were involved in a multi-crore fraud related to export of gold to a UAE-based concern in 2006. The investigators said that six private exporters - Ushma Jewellery and Packaging Export Pvt Ltd, Space Mercantile Company Pvt Ltd, K A Malle Pharmaceutical Company Ltd, Joshi Bullion and Gems Jewellery Pvt Ltd, Bond Gems Pvt Ltd and Indo Bonito Multinational Pvt Ltd - had submitted forged documents to MSTC to get 80% of the export value released.
The officials allegedly were aware of the entire forgery and abusing their position in the company, accepted the forged documents which incurred Rs 464 crore loss.
The scam came to light during an audit of Pen Co-Operative Bank. The probe revealed that the bank had purchased the fake bill from the exporters and helped the fraudsters to swindle the money. Earlier, CBI had rounded up six persons in connection with the case including Sishir Dharkar, the then chairman of the bank, his wife Gul Raihana Omer, a Bahrain-based woman, Prem Kumar Sharma, former adviser of the bank and consultant Rohis Ahmed. Joyesh Desai, the associate and consignee of the export, was also rounded upfollowing the arrests of the bank officials.
Probe revealed that the amount swindled from MSTC was used to buy property. CBI team arrived in Kolkata on April 27. After tracking Bose and Sengupta closely, the investigators managed to extract several fresh clues and believed to have seized some important documents which led to the confirmation that the officials were involved in the scam.