Kochi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday conducted raids at the residences of top officials of HLL Lifecare Ltd in Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam and Bengaluru as part of probe into alleged corruption in exporting iron ore by the company. A special squad of the CBI Kochi unit conducted raids at residences of M. Ayyappan, former chairman and current advisor, Suresh Kumar, former marketing director, B. Chandrasekharan, former finance director, Sathyavageeswaran, senior executive director (Finance), S. Girish Kumar senior vice-president (Procurement and Consulting Division), A. P. Hari Prasad, deputy manager, (Procurement and Consulting Division) and Rajesh Narayanan, chief executive officer, Ms Rama, Shipping Service, Bengaluru.
"We've seized documents regarding bank accounts and other investments of the accused and the same will be scrutinized in detail," the sources said. As per the FIR, the HLL Board of directors meet on December 6, 2005, decided to explore possibilities of Mercantile Export. In the cover of the decision, the accused persons entered into a "criminal conspiracy" with the Rama Shipping Services, Bengaluru, during the year 2007-2008. The HLL released Rs 2 crore fraudulently in advance to the shipping company under the pretext of procurement of iron ore for mercantile export without obtaining bank guarantee.
As per the original agreement, the Rama Shipping Service should furnish bank guarantee as security for the advance paid by the HLL. Two crossed cheques of Rs 2 crore equal to the amount paid in advance by HLL was provided by the shipping company though norms stated that cheques cannot be given as bank guarantee. On February 2008, Rs 2 crore was released. No shipping order or Letter of Credit was received from the buyer. Later HLL failed to present the cheques within the stipulated period as export of iron ore did not take place. The cheques were presented on May 2008 but the same were returned unpaid due to insufficient funds in the account of Rama Shipping Services. The amount released to the company could also not been recovered.
