CBI Uncovers Bank-Builder Nexus in Subvention Schemes, Supreme Court Orders FIRs

New Delhi, September 26, 2025: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been allowed to file First Information Reports (FIRs) in six alleged incidents of builder-bank nexus that made use of subvention schemes in the housing to skim money off homebuyers and keep them waiting for decades.

A Supreme Court bench of Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan and N K Singh gave the order after solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati told the court that the bureau had detected cognisable offences.

The CBI’s initial probe came on a direction from the apex court in April this year. It covered housing projects, and 19 banks and home financiers. Relying on amicus curiae Rajiv Jain’s report, the bench had said that eight banks and home finance companies – Indiabulls Housing Finance, PNB Housing Finance, Dewan Housing Finance, HDFC, ICICI Bank, L&T Housing Finance and Aditya Birla Housing Finance – were involved in 21 projects.

Jain’s report said that Supertech alone secured over Rs 5,157 crore from banks and financial institutions since 1998. He had suggested investigation into Supertech’s links with Corporation Bank, IDBI Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, India Bank, and PNB.

The CBI has registered 22 regular cases against companies, its directors and other unknown bank officials and others. The bench had asked the CBI to probe Supertech projects, and separately look at housing projects under subvention schemes in Noida, Greater Noida, Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad.