CBI court convicts 13 in Rs 45-lakh bank fraud case

A special CBI court sentenced 13 people to different duration of imprisonment and fine in a case of a Rs 45.74-lakh bank fraud at the Ludhiana branch of State Bank of Hyderabad.

The case was registered on the complaint of State Bank of Hyderabad, Ludhiana, alleging that SS Wadhwa, then branch manager along with other accused persons had abused his official position to sanctioned housing loans. According to the complaint, the manager flouted the bank’s norms, rules and regulations and failed to safeguard the bank’s interest, causing wrongful losses.

Upon completion of the investigation, it was established that accused Wadhwa in connivance with middleman Ashwani Puri had sanctioned housing loans ranging from 2 lakh to 9.5 lakh to 11 borrowers on the basis of forged/false documents i.e ITRs, building plans etc., and thus caused a wrongful loss to the tune of Rs. 45.74 lakh to the bank.

The accused bank manager died during the course of trial and proceedings abated in 2021.

A private person also died during the course of trial, while two other accused persons died before framing of charges and three accused persons were declared proclaimed offenders.

The chargesheet was filed against 20 accused persons, including a public servant and 19 private persons under sections 420, 467, 468, 471 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(d) of Prevention of Corruption Act. Charges were framed against 16 of them.

Since Wadhwa had already died during the trial and all the borrowers had repaid their loan, the court has sentenced Ashwani Puri to one year of rigorous imprisonment and Rs 7,500 fine, Arvind Jain three months of rigorous imprisonment and Rs 5,000 fine and Shallu Jain imprisonment till rising of the court and Rs 4,000 fine.

Other accused, Gurmeet Kaur, Surinder Kaur, Surender Kumar, Swaroop Singh, Hussan Lal, were sentenced for imprisonment till rising of the court and Rs 2,500 fine. Raj Rani, Naveen Kumar, Nand Lal and Shingara Singh were sentenced for imprisonment till rising of the court and Rs 1,500.