The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested the former Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) and the former General Manager (GM) of Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL). According to a press release by the CBI, both were presented before the Special CBI Court in Mumbai.

As per the official release, the arrests were made in a case involving an alleged Rs 3 crore bribery and a fraudulent loan given by BECIL to a company based in Mumbai. The Court has given the police four days of custody, until April 19, for the arrested public servants.

George Kuruvilla, who was the CMD of BECIL at the time, and WB Prasad, the then GM, were arrested on Wednesday. The CBI had earlier arrested Prateek Kanakia, CEO of TGBL, on March 24, 2025, and he was placed in police custody, which was extended until April 1, 2025. After that, he was moved to judicial custody. However, following the arrest of some public servants involved in the case, the CBI again requested police custody for Prateek Kanakia. The Special CBI Court in Mumbai approved this request and granted him an additional 3 days of police custody from April 17 to April 19.

George Kuruvilla, then CMD of BECIL; W.B. Prasad, GM(P-1), BECIL; Ashish Pratap Singh, then Legal Advisor, BECIL; Sudhir Chauhan, then Consultant, BECIL; Prateek Kanakia, CEO & Founder of TGBL, Mumbai, and unidentified others were the targets of a case filed by the CBI on September 3, 2024, for violations of Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended in 2018) and Section 120-B r/w 201, 420, 467, 468, 468, and 471 IPC. The investigation so far has found that in 2022, the accused individuals were involved in a criminal conspiracy. As part of this conspiracy, the Chairman and Managing Director of BECIL approved and arranged the disbursement of a venture loan of ₹50 crore to TGBL. In return, he received an undue benefit of ₹3 crore from co-accused Prateek Kanakia.

The investigation also found that TGBL, along with co-accused Prateek Kanakia, had submitted a fake Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG) worth ₹25 crore. Additionally, Prateek Kanakia misused the loan by not using it for the purpose it was approved for and failed to repay the loan to BECIL. Due to the actions and negligence of the arrested accused, BECIL has suffered an estimated wrongful loss of around Rs 58 crore. The investigation into the matter is still ongoing.