CBI books Subhash Chandra over alleged ₹1,322-crore loss to LIC Housing Finance

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against businessman Subhash Chandra and others for allegedly causing a wrongful loss of over ₹1,322 crore to the LIC Housing Finance Limited (LICHFL) through misrepresentation of facts.

Those named in the First Information Report (FIR) include Mr. Chandra, Vasant Sagar Properties Private Limited and its director Pankaj Suroliya, Pan India Infrastructure Private Limited, Digital Subscriber Management and Consultancy Services Private Limited and its director Amish Pandya; Spirit Infrapower and Multiventures Private Limited and its director Rajeev Dholakia; and unknown others.

LICHFL lodged a complaint with the agency on August 31, 2026, and the case was registered the same day. The complainant alleged that it had granted two credit facilities on Mr. Chandra’s personal guarantees executed in 2018.

One loan of ₹500 crore was sanctioned for Vasant Sagar Properties Private Limited and Pan India Infraprojects Private Limited (co-borrower); and the second was of ₹480 crore to Digital Subscriber Management and Consultancy Services Private Limited and Spirit Infrapower and Multiventures Private Limited (co-borrower).

According to the FIR, the Vasant Sagar loan facility was granted based on a Net Worth Certificate submitted by Mr. Chandra, attesting that his net worth was ₹59,113.21 crore as on March 31, 2017.

A Net Worth Certificate submitted by him, as issued by a chartered accountancy firm, on July 6, 2018, certified that his net worth was ₹40,562 crore.

The FIR alleged that in the course of subsequent proceedings under the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code for the personal insolvency resolution of Mr. Chandra, he categorically denied having the net worth as stated in the Net Worth Certificates, which he had submitted to LICHFL for approval and disbursal of the loans in question.

In the course of proceedings, as alleged, he had stated that his net worth in 2024 was ₹31.79 crore and that even in 2017-18 he did not have the net worth of more than ₹40,000 crore, alleged that FIR, adding that Mr. Chandra had, therefore, “colluded” with the borrowers to “defraud and cheat” LICHFL in advancing the loans to the borrower entities, which “misappropriated” the same.

LICHFL accused Mr. Chandra of creating false documents to denote inflated and bogus net worth. “The accused persons have publicly disclosed their intention to leave India and are likely to do so, unless an FIR is registered and an investigation is undertaken at the earliest to trace the proceeds of the loan and assets of the accused persons,” said the complaint.

On August 25, a Bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had cleared a repayment plan requiring Mr. Chandra, the Essel Group chairman, to pay ₹6.25 crore to settle his individual liability as a personal guarantor. The total admitted claim value stands at ₹22,006.57 crore against corporate debts.

However, on September 1, a five-member Bench of the Tribunal stayed the ruling and also barred Mr. Chandra from alienating his assets. The Essel Group chairman has opposed the formation of the five-member bench to decide his personal insolvency case, arguing that the Tribunal does not have such a power.