Retired bank officer gets bail in fraud case

The Delhi High Court Friday granted bail to a retired bank officer sentenced to three years jail by a trial court for defrauding a bank of Rs.1.14 crore.

Justice Sunil Gaur granted bail to K. Vasanth Kumar Shetty and also admitted his appeal against the sentence awarded by the trial court to him in February.

Shetty had moved the high court seeking bail and challenging the trial court order.

In February, the trial court had awarded three years jail term to four bank officials, including Shetty, and three other people for defrauding the Vijaya Bank branch at Barakhamba Road here.

The court said their act eroded common man's confidence in the banking institution.

The trial court had awarded jail term to three retired officers - H. Surendra Shetty, Vasanth Kumar Shetty and H. Balakrishna Shetty - and serving bank officer A. Maillappa Rai, then working as a manager in the foreign exchange department.

The court had also sentenced principal borrower Rakesh Kumar Bhatia, guarantor Jiya Lal Arora and the empanelled valuer with the complainant bank, Vijendra Kumar.

They were all facing trial for criminal conspiracy during 1994-1998 for defrauding the bank.

The convicts availed various credit facilities on the basis of fake collateral security in the name of a man who did not even exist and caused wrongful loss to the bank and gain to borrower Bhatia.

The court noted that the offence of cheating, impersonation, creation of false report and use of false and forged documents as genuine were committed in furtherance of the larger conspiracy.