A special court for CBI cases here today awarded three years' rigorous imprisonment to two former officials of Central Bank of India and two others for being party to a housing loan scam which caused a loss of Rs 1.13 crore.
According to the central agency, manager of Central Bank's Arera Hills branch Kamlesh Kumar Chourasia and assistant manager (credit) Vasant Pawse in connivance with Rajendra Prasad Tiwari and Brajesh Singh Yadav of Rajdhani Construction ran the scam during 2007 to 2009.
The scam pertained to sanctioning of housing loans and caused a loss of Rs 1,13,66,000 to the public sector bank, the CBI said, while listing the accused in a charge sheet for cheating, criminal conspiracy and relevant offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The special court, while awarding rigorous imprisonment to all of them, also imposed a fine of Rs 8,000 each on Chourasiya, Pawse and Yadav, and that of Rs 2,000 on Tiwari, a CBI release said here.
CBI had alleged that the man had taken staff loan from the
bank and also made a fake loan entry of Rs 18.5 lakh in favour of his wife without any sanction of such loan.
It alleged that Bakshi had unauthorizedly diverted over Rs 2.5 crore in his and his wife's loan accounts and outstanding fictitious advances were Rs 69.5 lakh in the loan account at the time of detection of fraud.
The prosecution said Bakshi reluctantly returned Rs 42.3 lakh to the bank but failed to return the remaining amount and he in connivance with his wife has caused a loss of Rs 27.1 lakh to the bank which remained unpaid.
During the trial, the couple denied their involvement in the commission of offence and claimed that they have been falsely implicated in the case.
The court, in its 139-page judgement, said that being a public servant, it was Bakshi's duty to protect the interest of bank but instead of protecting it, he indulged in act of corruption and diverted huge public money by illegal means and obtained pecuniary advantage for himself.
It observed merely that he paid back the amount to the bank would not make the offence less serious.
