Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 20: Legal Counsel for Hilal A Rather has strongly rebutted the media reports alleging scam in repayment of Rs 177 crores liability of J&K Bank, which is yet to be established by the investigating agencies while the charges are yet to be proved in a court of law.
In a statement, the Legal Counsel has sought to explain that the whole issue of the loan amount of Rs 177 crores has to be understood in the right perspective. The principal component of the loan primarily for construction of the project was only around Rs 128 crores, rest being interest component and anyone with some idea of construction costs in Prefabricated Steel Structures can vouch that more money has been spent on the project than has been drawn from the bank, something which can be easily corroborated through a valuation of the constructed project by independent experts, the statement added.
“It has been claimed that all the loans have been sanctioned to Mr Hilal and Paradise Avenue, where he is only one of the five partners, in violation of credit policies of the bank only because he happens to be the son of Abdul Rahim Rather, senior National Conference leader and former Finance Minister. If that is the case then why did the bank support the project through further financial assistance to Paradise Avenue in 2015 and 2016 when an adverse political dispensation was in power?” asked the Legal Counsel adding that an attempt has been made to project Mr Hilal as a petty criminal even as he has been fully co-operating with the agencies since June 2019, despite undergoing two major surgeries in the past three months and he had himself gone to the office of Anti Corruption Bureau to participate in the investigations where he was informed that he was being taken into custody to which he as a law abiding citizen complied with and is seeking due legal remedy.
With regard to claim that Mr Hilal has acquired an eight bedroom villa in Palm Jumerah, Dubai by diverting the loan funds received from the bank, the statement said that no such property exists and it is a figment of the creative imagination of the media to capture a few more eyeballs. “If such a property exists, media should make the details public as the value of the alleged property would be far more than the total loan amount taken from J&K Bank and it can be used by the agencies/bank/Govt to dispose it off and make public money good,” the statement added.
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