Ex-SBI chief’s arrested

MUMBAI : Terming the recent arrest of former State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Pratip Chaudhuri “extremely unfortunate”, current chairman Dinesh Khara said that the bank has utmost faith in the judiciary and confident that Chaudhuri will be released unconditionally at the earliest. While there have been several reactions in the public space, from the banking community as well as previous chairman, I will only say that it appears that the individual was not given an opportunity to be heard before issuing the arrest warrant,” Khara told reporters on Wednesday. As far as SBI is concerned, we adhere to the best practices in corporate governance. And I can assure you that as far as the bank is concerned, there has been no irregularities in the said case and prescribed rules and the processes were followed by the bank in dealing with this account,” said Khara
Khara added that issues of such magnitude are invariably dealt with at local level and the top management of the bank, including the chairman, are not involved at all, in such kind of decision making.
On November 1, Jaisalmer Police arrested Chaudhuri in an alleged loan scam, The Times of India reported. The case is related to properties owned by Gaudavan Group, which took a ₹24 crore loan from SBI in 2008 to construct a hotel. According to the report, allegations against Chaudhuri include properties worth ₹200 crore being sold for ₹25 crore after the bank seized them for defaulting on the loan.