Sujana Chowdary Shrugs Off Loan Fraud Charges

Hyderabad: Union minister of state for science and technology Y. Sujana Chowdary on Friday shrugged off the loan fraud charges by a Maritius bank in which connection a non-bailable arrest warrant was issued.Twelfth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Danny Ruth on Thursday issued the arrest warrant directing the police to produce Chowdary before him on April 26.

"I was shocked to learn that a court issued an arrest warrant as I never knew about any fraud case against me," Chowdary told the media. In fact, the case was filed last year by a Maritius charging Sujana Group and its founder Sujana Chowdary of defaulting a loan to the tune of Rs100 crore. The court asked him to be present for his deposition, but he sought exemption stating he had to attend a cabinet meeting at Delhi. After a few exemptions, the court finally issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against the central minister.

However, Chowdary tried to clarify that though he was the founder of the company, he no longer connected with it as he resigned from the position of chairman in 2014. The loan is said to be released sometime in 2012 and at that time also I was not the non-executive chairman, he said.

"If at all any delay in repayment occurs, it's the duty of the lending banks to wait till the situation improves. After all, entire world is reeling under the economic crisis and the company might have problems to repay the loan on time," he said adding that the delay doesn't necessarily mean default or fraud.

Chowdary said he is taking all measures to tackle the court warrant in accordance with legal procedure.