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19 years on, nine men get 3 years in jail for cheating bank of ₹13.51 crore
In June 2004, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against Modern Denims Ltd and two persons associated with the firm for forging documents such as invoices, bills of exchange, lorry receipts, export orders or contracts, etc, to obtain Export Packing Credit, Letter of Credit, Foreign Bill Discounting and Inland Bill Discounting Facilities to the tune of ₹13.51 from the Ahmedabad branch of the Bank of Baroda between 1994 and 2000
Mumbai: The Esplanade metropolitan magistrate court recently sentenced nine persons, including eight senior citizens, of a firm to three years of imprisonment nineteen years after they were booked for defrauding Bank of Baroda and Federal Bank of ₹13.51 crore.
The convicts have been identified as the firm’s managing directors Sachin Hari Singh Ranka, 61, and Dharampal Adaram Kalwania, 66, chartered accountant S K Jhunjhunwala 76, directors Ram Ratan Maheshwari, 77, Tarachand Mohanlal Chejara, 71, Vimal Prakash Agarwal, 66, Pradeep Kumar Jain (71) and Sureshchand Jagdish Maheshwari, 66, and the firm’s accounts manager Hansmukhdas Jamnadas Sethi, 67.
In June 2004, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against Modern Denims Ltd and two persons associated with the firm for forging documents such as invoices, bills of exchange, lorry receipts, export orders or contracts, etc, to obtain Export Packing Credit, Letter of Credit, Foreign Bill Discounting and Inland Bill Discounting Facilities to the tune of ₹13.51 from the Ahmedabad branch of the Bank of Baroda between 1994 and 2000.
Subsequent investigation revealed that the accused persons did not utilise the credit advances for the purpose for which the advances were taken, like purchasing raw material, and instead, the funds were used for clearing off the dues that were outstanding in respect of certain earlier Inland Letters of Credit.
After completing the investigation, the central agency filed a charge sheet against Modern Denims Ltd and 12 persons associated with the firm. All of them, except RJ Rathi, an authorised signatory of a related firm who is still at large, were prosecuted for the offence.
The case against the chairman of Modern Denims, Hari Singh Ranka and vice president Ranglal Nahar was abated as they died during the pendency of the trial.
After perusing the evidence adduced by the CBI through its prosecutor Sandeep Kumar, the court held that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the nine accused had hatched a criminal conspiracy and accordingly used forged valuable securities to defraud the public sector banks.
On Thursday, additional chief metropolitan magistrate Jaywant C Yadav sentenced them to three years imprisonment, observing that economic offences, according to the law laid down by the Supreme Court, need to be viewed seriously, as they affect the economy of the country.
