Golden Jubilee firm that owns 'Trident Hotel' booked in Rs 1285.45 Cr bank fraud case
By Coreena Suares Published on 1 April 2021 8:15 PM IST
Hyderabad: The sleuths of Central Bureau of Investigation have booked a case against 'Golden Jubilee Hotels' private limited represented by managing director Laxmi Narayana Sharma and director Arjun Singh Oberoi, in Rs 1285.45 Crore bank fraud case.
According to the official website of Golden Jubilee Hotels, the firm owns Hotel Trident and Tower- II located in Madhapur of Hyderabad. The company is a public private partnership with the department of tourism and Youth Advancement Tourism & Culture- government of Telangana.
Having its head office located beside ShilpakalaVedika, Shilparamam in Madhapur, the firm is engaged in hospitality industry- Infrastructure project establishment of deluxe five star hotel Trident and business hotel with service apartment- a five star facility at Madhapur. M/s Core Hotel venture private limited holds a 84 % stake in the company, while EIH limited the rest.
The CBI was acting based on a complaint filed by Bank of Baroda officials- Himayath nagar branch. According to the FIR , between 2009 and 2015, the company represented by Laxmi Narayan Sharma, Arjun Singh Oberoi, Neha Gambhir and Yashdeep Sharma availed financial credit from a consortium of 7 banks, for a particular project.
However investigation found that the borrower company and its directors entered into a criminal conspiracy with unknown people of the banks and diverted funds running in multi-crore. The loan amount was siphoned off without utilising it for the purpose. In total the company caused a wrongful loss of Rs 1285.45 crore.
Investigation found:
An independent foreign audit found that Golden Jubilee Hotels indulged in fraudulent trading, defined under section 66 of the IBC 2016.
The directors open an account in the name of 'Hotel Operations account- Trident Hyderabad ' with United Bank of India and was operational between 2015 and 2016. All the collection related to the sales of Trident was transferred to this account, illegally. Interestingly, no director was given the authority to handle this account resulting in questioning the legitimacy of the account. This is among the many alleged fraud the audit found
The company has availed loans from Bank of Baroda, Corporation Bank (now UBI), Punjab & Sind bank, Syndicate bank (now Canara), Jammu & Kashmir bank, Bank of Maharashtra. The total dues stands at Rs 1285. 45 Crore.
A case under 120 (B), 420 of the IPC and 13(2) r/w 13 (1) (d) has been booked against Golden Jubilee Hotels Pvt ltd, Laxmi Narayan Sharma, Arjun Singh Oberoi, Neha Gambhir and Yashdeep Sharma.
