new delhi in a stern warning to bankers the finance ministry has asked chief executives of public sector banks psbs to check all npa accounts exceeding rs 50 crore for fraud or they could face criminal conspiracy charges according to official sourcesthis missive comes in the light of arrest of bhushan steels erstwhile promoter neeraj singal by the serious fraud investigation office sfio for allegedly siphoning off fundsthe sources said that bankers could be held accountable under section 120b of indian penal code if they fail to report fraud in an account which is later unearthed by investigating agencies sources saidif the investigating agencies find diversion of funds in those defaulting accounts bankers may be liable to face criminal proceedings the sources said adding that this advisory is like an extra precaution to keep bankers from getting into legal tanglesmore than a dozen companies undergoing bankruptcy resolution are being reviewed by banks and investigating agencies for fraudulent activities including diversion of fundsindian banks are facing mounting nonperforming assets npas or bad loans especially at psbs which have reached over rs 8 lakh crore in addition several banking frauds have been unearthed including the rs 14000 crore scam at pnb carried out allegedly by diamond jeweller nirav modi and his associatesa senior government official confirmed the development and said that some discrepancies have been pointed out in the case of a steel maker and a real estate firm among 1012 companiesthere were some inputs and lenders who have been asked to provide transaction details of last five years if required banks will also undertake forensic audit he saidearlier this month sfio arrested singal for alleged diversion of rs 2000 crore raised through loans from stateowned bankssimilar modus operandi has been used by other promoters also said another government official adding that there have been intelligence inputs on associate companies being used for similar transactionssfio is also looking into the books of companies which are currently undergoing debt resolution he said adding that this has been done on the basis of specific inputs provided by the ministry of corporate affairsduring the resolution process the extensive audit of bankrupt companies has thrown up financial irregularities in several casesin june 2017 the reserve bank of india rbi had identified 12 stressed accounts each having more than rs 5000 crore of outstanding loans and accounting for 25 per cent of total nonperforming assets npas of banks for immediate referral under the insolvency and bankruptcy code ibc in august rbi had sent a list of 28 more firms to lenders for resolution by december 2017these accounts also have some firms from the second list and those where later banks filed cases in nclt national company law tribunal said a bank executive aware of the developmentsthe nclt benches handle banks bad debt resolution under insolvency and bankruptcy code ibcbanks have to undertake a twoyear transaction audit when they start the resolution process through ibc in case there are any issues or specific information banks also conduct a