A SPECIAL CBI court convicted four persons for cheating a public bank in 1998 and directed one of them to pay a fine of Rs 3 crore. While sentencing the four, special judge SU Wadgaonkar said that economic offenses have serious consequences to the economy and financial health of the country. The court also said that the fraud committed in 1997-98 by creating accounts of fictitious persons on the basis of fake documents would be of approximately Rs 8-9 crore value today.
A complaint was filed in 1998 by the manager of a national bank’s local branch in Mumbai alleging that a few accounts controlled by the accused in the name of various proprietors did not have any sanctioned facility. Special public prosecutor JK Sharma for the CBI submitted that the modus operandi of the accused was that despite the accounts not having sanctioned facilities, checks were deposited in these accounts and sent for clearing. The branch was permitting drawings against uncleared effects immediately even though the rules required that the customers be permitted to draw the amount only after presenting cheques. These fraudulent transactions resulted in losses to the tune of Rs 98.28 lakh to the bank. The prosecutor also submitted that records were then fudged to show existing liabilities of the same amount.
The court convicted all four accused on sections pertaining to criminal conspiracy. It sentenced Abid Ali Ghulam Vohra to four years imprisonment observing that he, as the manager of the bank, was a public servant receiving an attractive salary and had allowed the accused to cause huge loss to the public money. He was also found guilty on charges including cheating and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Ashok Bhansali, who was booked for being one of the beneficiaries of the fraud amount, was sentenced to five years in jail and a fine of Rs 3 crore. Other accused, Rizwan Patel and Sadiq Patel, were sentenced to three years in jail with a fine of Rs 1.30 lakh.
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