Rotomac Chief, son sent to transit remand, IT seizes 12 bank accounts

New Delhi :  A CBI court on Friday sent Rotomac owner Vikram Kothari and his son Rahul to one-day transit remand while the Income Tax department seized 12 bank accounts of the group and issued six prosecution against the businessman in connection with the Rs 3,695 crore loan default.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal at the Patiala House courts passed an order for a day’s remand after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sought a two-day transit remand to take the father and son to Lucknow.

The duo will be produced before the court concerned in Lucknow on Saturday.

Kothari and his son were arrested on Thursday for alleged default on loan repayment after their four-day consecutive questioning since the CBI filed the case against them and raided their residential and office premises in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur.

Defence advocate Pramod Kumar Dubey had raised objections to the jurisdiction of the court, saying the accused should be produced before a sessions court and not before a magisterial court. The court then reserved its order till 2 p.m. on the issue of jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, an Income Tax department official said over 12 more bank accounts of the Rotomac Group Pvt Ltd have been attached in addition to the 14 bank accounts attached earlier and that six prosecutions have been sanctioned against Kothari.

The agency filed the FIR on Sunday night after getting a complaint against Kothari, his wife Sadhana and son Rahul, from the Bank of Baroda. Kothari is the Chairman and Managing Director of Rotomac while his wife and son are Directors.

Kothari had obtained Rs 2,919 crore from Bank of India (Rs 754.77 crore), Bank of Baroda (Rs 456.63 crore), Indian Overseas Bank (Rs 771.07 crore), Union Bank of India (Rs 458.95 crore), Allahabad Bank (Rs 330.68 crore), Bank of Maharashtra (Rs 49.82 crore) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (Rs 97.47 crore), the FIR said.

Kothari, his wife, son, firm Rotomac, some unidentified bank officials and private persons were booked on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery under the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act.

The Bank of Baroda complaint said that the banks had extended credit to the Kanpur-based firm and its related companies from 2008 onwards.

The CBI had earlier confiscated several belongings of Kothari and his family, including laptops and mobile phones.

IANS