State Bank of India has urged the CBI to help investigate Kanishk Gold Pvt Ltd, a Chennai based jewellery chain for loan fraud. The complaint copy by the consortium of banks suggests that the company has duped Rs 842.15 Cr with 14 banks. However, with interest and other charges, this amount may go up as high as Rs 1000 Cr, the complaint said. The industry knew Kanishk as Krizz, a wholesale dealer who began this company to sell gold chains across India.

Reports suggest that Kanishk Gold has been receiving loans from 14 banks for the last 10 years since 2007 and with each passing year, the credit and working capital limits of Kanishk has been bumped up. Whether or not a thorough background check was done on the company or the documents submitted by the company by the banks still remains to be unclear. “It is a fairly new brand, may be 8 years old or so. It wasn’t really popular. They were wholesale manufacturers and their operations have been shut for the last one-year. Though it has been closed for a while, it has come to light only now may be because of the unearthing of other scams,’ says Mr. H.M. Sultan of MJDMA (The Madras Jewellers & Diamond Merchant’s Association).

The SBI led complaint copy suggests that the bank has been enhancing the company’s working capital over the last 10 years and one fine day, the company decided to cease all its operations including its manufacturing units. The owner, Bhoopesh Jain didn’t receive any of the calls made by the banks and according to a report by ToI, him and his wife are currently residing in Mauritius. The bankers were forced to file a complaint to the CBI after visiting the manufacturing units and nothing was found. The CBI is yet to file an FIR.

The involved banks include SBI (Rs 215 Cr), PNB (Rs 115 Cr), Union Bank (Rs 50 Cr), Syndicate Bank (Rs 50 Cr), Bank of India (Rs 45 Cr), IDBI Bank (Rs 45 Cr), UCO Bank (Rs 40 Cr), Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank (Rs 37 Cr), Andhra Bank (Rs 30 Cr), Bank of Baroda (Rs 30 Crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 25 Cr), ICICI Bank (Rs 25 Crore), Central Bank of India (Rs 20 Cr) and Corporation Bank (Rs 20 Crore).

After having a liaison with the concerned company for a little over 10 years, a forensic audit was done only after Kanishk was declared fraudulent.