E-Paper
24 years later, two sentenced to 3 years in jail for ₹64 lakh bank fraud
After 24 years, two men were sentenced to three years in prison and fined ₹2 lakh for defrauding a bank of ₹64 lakh in Kanpur.
Over 24 years after they were booked for defrauding a bank of ₹64 lakh, two of the accused were awarded three years of imprisonment along with a fine of ₹2 lakh on each of them, CBI officials confirmed on Wednesday. The punishment was awarded by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) central court in Lucknow.
In a note to media, the agency said the court imprisoned Ramesh Chandra Dutta and Ajit Pal Singh, both of whom held the power of attorney for the bank account of Kanpur-based M/s Shivam Traders.
Officials said CBI registered a case against the fraud on March 23, 2000 on a written complaint from the zonal manager of UCO Bank, Lucknow who alleged that during 1998-99 then branch manager of the bank’s Generalganj branch in Kanpur, Vijay Kumar Nagar--in criminal conspiracy with Shivam Traders, another Kanpur entity M.V. & Sons and others-- misused his official position and granted unauthorised credit facility and overdrawings, over and above his discretionary power to the aforesaid firms. This, allegedly, cause a wrongful loss of Rs.68 lakh to the bank and corresponding wrongful gain to the accused.
They added the CBI filed the chargesheet against Nagar, Ramesh Dutta, Ajit Singh and Vijay Kumar Shukla (the power of attorney holder in the account of M.V. & Sons) on December 23, 2002. They said the court, after trial, found Dutta and Singh guilty and sentenced them accordingly. Meanwhile, in the event of the deaths of Nagar and Shukla, the trial against them was abated, they added.
