80% of multi-crore fraud cases have fallen flat
Aneesha Sareen
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, February 3
Even as the CBI has been registering cases of multi-crore bank frauds over the years, proving the cases in court seems to be a Herculean task for the investigating agency. As per the statistics of verdicts in such cases in the CBI court over the years, over 80 per cent of such cases have failed to reach a logical end in court and the accused have ended up walking scot-free.
Except for one recent verdict when the court convicted five while acquitting four others in the Shubham Hospital case, the verdicts in remaining all the cases have given a setback to the CBI as there have been acquittals.
In most of the cases, bank officials were booked for sanctioning loans worth crores to private persons on the basis of forged documents or for cheating the bank by transferring fraudulently money from RGTS accounts.
December 2013: Three acquitted in Punwire scam
The court had acquitted three persons, including two former officials of the Chandigarh State Co-operative Bank, accused in the Rs 11 crore Punjab Wireless Limited (Punwire) scam dating back to 1998. As per the CBI case which was registered in 2000 after an inquiry by the UT Administration, the three were accused of indulging in a criminal conspiracy to cause a loss of crores of rupees to the bank through illegal investments. The court found no direct evidence linking the accused to the case.
March 2013: 7 discharged in Rs28-cr PNB scam
The CBI court had discharged seven persons, including former general manager of PNB BP Chopra, in the Rs 28-crore scam. The court discharged six bank officials and a businessman, in the case even before charges could be framed against them.
The case dated back to 2008 when the CBI had booked six PNB officials and a businessman for allegedly embezzling Rs 28 crore. The money was disbursed as a loan to set up a captive power plant. The plant, however, was never set up, the CBI had stated.
May 13, 2013: All five discharged in Shubham Hospital case
The court discharged five persons involving a partner of Shubham Hospital, Panchkula, and several officials of Punjab National Bank. Sandeep Sharma, a partner of Shubham Hospital and Diagnostic Centre in Sector 20, Panchkula, employees of PNB and a former secretary of a housing society were acquitted from charges of corruption framed against them. They were however convicted in a separate chargesheet in the case filed against them in 2015.
PNB fraud of 2012: Seven were acquitted
The CBI Court had acquitted seven persons in the Rs 2-crore bank fraud case involving officials of Punjab National Bank(PNB) as the accused. The court had acquitted two PNB managers SB Gupta and RK Chaba, senior manager RK Dhar, chartered accountant Harish Soni and property evaluator SR Bakshi after the prosecution failed to prove the charges against them. As per the CBI case, in 2007, a loan of Rs 2 crore was sanctioned for building an institute of hotel management at Zirakpur by the PNB. The loan was sanctioned in the name of AV Kings Oak Hotels and Resorts Private Limited. The CBI had registered a case of corruption and criminal conspiracy after it came to light that no such institute was constructed, for which the Rs 2-crore loan was sanctioned and the loan was obtained as part of a conspiracy.
