Former Minister among 8 convicted of bank fraud

Eight people, including the chief manager of an Indian Overseas bank branch and former AIADMK minister Dr Ammamuthu Pillai, have been convicted by a CBI court in defrauding the bank to the tune of Rs 1.58 crore.

Judge S Ganesan sentenced the chief manager Balasubramanian along with another accused Kalyana Sundaram to seven years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) and imposed a fine of Rs 8.2 lakh on the duo.

Six others were sentenced to three years RI.

The accused, including a Siddha doctor, were charged with obtaining a building loan by producing fake documents with the connivance of the bank official in 2004-05.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the case in 2009.

Dr Ramalakshmi had taken the loan by producing fake documents to build a hospital and the bank official entered into a conspiracy for sanctioning the loan.