A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Monday sentenced a former chief manager of Dena bank’s branch in Andheri and three others to imprisonment ranging from two to five years for cheating the bank and causing a loss of over Rs. 50 lakhs to it.
The maximum sentence of five years was given by special CBI judge AS Sayyad to Vijay Chaudhari, a Mulund resident who had forged documents to secure a loan from the bank of Rs. 50 lakhs. He had also submitted fake voter ID and forged Income Tax Returns assessment documents to avail the loan facility. Prafulla Mishra, who was then the chief manager of the bank’s Manish Nagar branch at the western suburb, was sentenced to four-years jail.
The CBI's public prosecutor, Sandeep Singh, said the agency had examined 39 witnesses to substantiate its case. As per the prosecution’s case, 141 fake Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) each of a denomination of Rs. 50,000 were produced as security for the loan. They were shown by Chaudhari as issued by a post office in Bhiwandi. He had also shown his name as Ajay Patil and signed in the pseudonym when applying for the loan.Mishra had allegedly sanctioned the loan without proper verification for kickbacks from Chaudhari. The loan was disbursed and never repaid, causing a loss to the bank.
The special court on Monday also acquitted two people in the case, both public servants, who had been added as accused during the course of the trial. They had been joined as accused as the court had found evidence of their involvement in the offence. The prosecution had, however, not managed to secure the sanction required to prosecute them under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
