Mumbai: A special CBI court in Mumbai has convicted 10 people for defrauding the State Bank of India (SBI) to the tune of ₹1.70 crore between 2008 and 2010 by obtaining Demand Cash Credit facility on fabricated documents. The court has imposed a fine of ₹34 lakh and ₹35 lakh on two convicts each.
As per the prosecution case, the group of accused, including Vijay Sheth, Nargis Divendry, Dnyaneshwar Sawant, Vijay Ashar, Anup, Madhubala Sheth, Manoj Sheth, with the help of SBI officials cheated the bank to the tune of ₹4.89 crore by using false and forged documents.
SBI officials accused of the fraud include — Kailashchandra Dayani, the then Chief Manager; Utsav Prasad, the then Field Officer attached to the bank’s Opera House Branch; Nandkumar Karnik, who retired as a Deputy Manager; Ram Morey, the then Chief Manager of the Opera House branch; Anup Kumar Sinha, the then Credit Analyst; Shripad Deshpande, the then Chief Manager, Opera House branch.
The court discharged Manoj pending the trial in 2014 and acquitted Nandkumar for want of evidence, while the case against Vijay was abated as he died during the trial.
The court has convicted all the remaining ten accused of being part of the conspiracy to cheat the bank.
Divendry is sentenced to five years imprisonment with a fine of ₹2,000; Sawant and Ashar are sentenced to 2 years imprisonment each, whereas Anup is sentenced to five years imprisonment and a fine of ₹35 lakh, Madhubala is sentenced to four years imprisonment and fine of ₹34 lakh, bank officials Dayani, Prasad, Morey, Sinha have been sentenced to four years imprisonment while Deshpande has been sentenced to three years imprisonment.
The group had obtained credit facilities based on fake documents and also referred to fake documents of the properties for security to obtain the credit facility. The prosecution examined 81 witnesses to prove that key accused Vijay, who died pending the trial, with the help of his family members and others obtained credit facilities from the bank of India. In his conspiracy, the bank officials also assisted him for monetary gain.
The court accepted the prosecution case against the bank officials and observed they abused their position and helped the accused and his associates to obtain credit facilities knowing well that the documents submitted were fake.