Recently, a massive fake bank guarantee scam involving several banks was exposed through an investigation conducted by RTV. Following this revelation, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has now officially taken up the investigation into the scam. Responding to RTV’s reports, Member of Parliament Karti Chidambaram wrote a letter to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). As a result, the RBI directed the CBI to investigate the scam and bring the culprits to justice. This development has shocked those who tried to keep this significant scam under wraps. The masterminds and key players involved in this scam are expected to appear before the CBI soon.
RTV currently possesses phone records that could expose the role of the State Bank of India (SBI) in this fake guarantee scam. Hyderabad has become the central hub for this multi-crore fake foreign bank guarantee operation. These fake bank guarantees were produced in Hyderabad, and intriguingly, the main office involved is the SBI Secunderabad branch.
The scam has international connections, with a small island nation called Saint Lucia, located thousands of kilometers away from India, playing a role. In this country, the Euro Exim Bank issues its own bank guarantees, which are then sent to the Exim Bank in Tanzania, an African nation. After this process, the guarantees are validated by SBI in Hyderabad and then sent to government agencies like the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). Euro Exim Bank also sends guarantees to Mashreq Bank in Dubai and Mauritius Commercial Bank in Mauritius. These guarantees are then authenticated by SBI and Union Bank of India (UBI) and sent to government agencies, perpetuating corruption. The scam involves seven domestic and foreign banks.
Another critical aspect is that Euro Exim Bank does not directly pay the guaranteed amounts; instead, it transfers this responsibility to Exim Bank in Uganda. The Exim Bank in Uganda has a value of $19 million, but the bank guarantee issued in the document is $123 million—$104 million more than the bank’s capacity. By issuing such fake guarantees, contractors are looting public funds. In India, the government builds infrastructure like bridges, roads, and tunnels with public money. Contracts are awarded to private companies for these projects, but these companies are submitting fake documents to siphon off public funds. Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Limited (MEIL) provided a fake bank guarantee from Euro Exim Bank through Union Bank of India to the National Highways Authority.
Recently, quality issues were discovered in a road construction project undertaken by Megha Engineering Company as part of NH-17 in Kerala, from Chengala to Nileshwaram. As a result, a show-cause notice was issued to Megha Engineering Company’s MD Krishna Reddy. However, only two officials were suspended, and the matter was closed. In Telangana, a retaining wall of the Sunkishala project, executed by Megha Engineering, collapsed recently. The poorly and negligently constructed tunnel wall crumbled like a house of cards under a minor flood, raising concerns about its ability to withstand a major flood, which could potentially lead to the project being washed into the Krishna River. Megha Engineering also faced failure in the Kaleshwaram Pump House flooding incident.
Many IAS officers involved in this corruption scandal are now sleepless. These officers, who awarded contracts to fraudulent companies using fake documents, are set to face a CBI investigation. The extent of bribes these officials took to award multi-crore contracts through illegal means is about to be exposed. Contractors have put forward a strange argument, claiming they issued fake bank guarantees out of a deep belief in the incompetence of the system, and they promise to provide genuine guarantees if given another chance. The question now arises: who will protect the public from these traitors looting the country from within? Corrupt contractors are using bribes to turn politicians into puppets. The public hopes that the CBI’s intervention will help restore some faith in the system.