It should have happened a long time ago. The arrest of IDBI bank officials, including the former chairman, for giving Kingfisher Airlines a Rs 900 crore loan when it was still struggling to repay earlier loans, was long overdue. The, so called restructuring loan, was given without proper approval and apparently rushed through to benefit Vijay Mallya, who fled to the UK when things got too hot for him in India. The move is the strictest so far and in line with the strategy to eventually declare Mallya as a proclaimed offender and seize his properties. While it is good that the focus remains on Mallya, investigating agencies and the Union Finance Ministry must not lose sight of the mountain of bad loans piled by banks, many of which were granted under dubious circumstances. The country’s banks have over Rs 9 lakh crore in bad loans and nothing is being done to either remedy the situation or catch crooked bankers who allowed it to happen. Greater scrutiny from the RBI, Centre and investigating agencies is the need of the hour.
