The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against a real estate promoter, a rice mill owner, his wife, and bank valuers for allegedly cheating the State Bank of India (SBI) by securing a housing loan of Rs5.22 crore for a property that failed to attract buyers even at Rs3.46 crore during auction.
This marks the fourth loan fraud case registered following a directive from the Madras High Court to expedite booking of such offences. The accused, P Krishnan, who owns a rice mill in Pallipattu, along with his wife, applied for a housing term loan from SBI in 2018. They sought financing to purchase 9,641 sqft of land in Zamin Pallavaram and build a house on 5,335 sqft, claiming the property was valued at Rs7 crore.
Bank-appointed valuers A P Radhakrishnan and P Muthuselvan assessed the property’s worth at over Rs6 crore, prompting SBI’s Meenambakkam branch to sanction a Rs5.22 crore loan and disburse Rs4.5 crore to MRP Constructions, engaged by the couple for construction. The sale deed was registered for Rs6 crore the same year.
However, the couple defaulted, and the loan account was declared a non-performing asset (NPA) in 2021. The house was later auctioned with a base price of Rs3.46 crore but failed to find buyers.
The complaint alleges that the valuers deliberately inflated the market value, ignoring the guideline value of around Rs2,010 per sqft, to defraud the bank. SBI suspects collusion among promoter Punithanathan, her husband Renganathan (the original landowner), buyers, and the panelled valuers.
Following the Madras High Court’s directions, the CBI registered a case against the accused to investigate the fraudulent housing loan transaction.
