IAS officer's wife, bank manager jailed in fraud case

A Special Lokayukta Judge has sentenced a woman, wife of a senior IAS officer, and a bank manager to 18 months in jail in a fraud case.
Manda Thete, wife of IAS officer Ramesh Thete, and Keshav Deshpande, a bank manager and co-accused in the case, were convicted by Judge Vimal Prakash Shukla on Wednesday.
The two were found guilty in the case related to procurement of Rs 25 lakh loan from the MP State Cooperative Bank here through fraudulent means.
As per the prosecution, Manda had applied for loan in 2002 and at that time value of the house she had given as collateral was shown to be Rs 25 lakh although its market value was just Rs six lakh.

Deshpande, as Manager of the bank, accepted the house assessment value without making any independent inquiry to find its actual cost, it said.
Manda later invested the loan amount in her cassette company, Smart Audio, and used a part of it to pay old debts.
The fraud came to light after a raid on the officer's house following a complaint about possession of disproportionate assets.