“Prima facie, it appears that the norms have been overlooked. It is not done without giving an opportunity of being heard to a person… It does not appear to be a case of corruption.” Rajnish Kumar Told TOI. He said the matter pertains to a dispute between an ARC and the owner of the property and it appears that a person has been singled out. “It is not about one person. Today it is him, tomorrow it could be someone else,” Kumar said.
Arundhati Bhattacharya, who succeeded Choudhury and was the first woman to head the country’s largest bank, also supported her former boss. “I can attest to the fact that Mr. Choudhary is completely and utterly honest and there is no wrongdoing on his part. It is an unfortunate day for bankers when a senior banker is taken to act like this without doing anything wrong,” she told TOI.
Ironically, the arrests came a day after the Finance Ministry laid down norms on a uniform employee accountability framework for non-performing assets (NPA) accounts of over Rs 50 crore, aimed at shielding bankers from genuine business decisions that would later turn out to be wrong. are proved. Bankers have been wary of action by law enforcement agencies, prompting many of them to go slow in approving loans, a concern that prompted even Prime Minister Narendra Modi to step in and comfort them.
Former SBI Deputy MD Sunil Srivastava tweeted, “Absolutely pathetic, is re-arrangement being made by defaulters despite all efforts of Modi government, time for change in judicial procedures to improve transparency and introduce accountability Is.” Responding to Kumar’s comments on a news forum, Mohandas Pai took to social media to demand the intervention of the government. “Shockingly, @FinMinIndia (Ministry of Finance) and @RBI (Reserve Bank of India) should intervene for the safety of banks and its employees,” he tweeted.
Several bank officials said Chowdhury’s arrest would once again create fear, not only in sanctioning loans, but also in the recovery process, where lenders and borrowers often choose to settle dues and waive penal interest. SBI sources alleged that the borrower has long tried to thwart the bank’s efforts to recover dues. Executives also pointed out that given the size of the transaction, it is unlikely that this will be Choudhury’s decision. “Moreover, even in small loans, it is never one person who decides the recovery action,” said an SBI official.
“If a defaulter can send a former chairman of a bank to jail on charges, how can bankers be expected to do so? The government has assured us time and again that the authorities cannot pick up a banker without any reason. The case has been filed just before the closure of the courts for Diwali – it appears to be pre-planned,” said a senior banker.
Another banker said that a defaulter is given full opportunity to repay. “In this case, many years have passed since the default and the last sale. You cannot compare the current real estate value with the old value. Also, when assets are sold in poor condition, the valuation is always low.”
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