Hyderabad: The Special Judge for CBI Cases, Hyderabad on Tuesday sentenced four persons to undergo five year imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs. 75,000 on them for cheating Punjab National Bank to the tune of Rs. 53.82 crores.
The CBI had registered a case in 2016 against Sheetal Refineries Limited Gangapahad, RR District, Telangana and R. P. Garg, then AGM, Punjab National Bank, Banjara Hills, Jitender Kumar Agarwal, then MD of Sheetal Refineries Limited, Sudhir Bhuraria, Authorized Signatory and Manish Bhuraria on the allegations of committing bank fraud and causing a loss of Rs. 53.82 crore to Punjab National Bank.
The CBI officials stated that the company and its functionaries availed credit facilities from PNB Large Corporate Branch, Hyderabad and presented false statements/documents/information to the bank including with respect to share application money, false stock statements for availing the credit facilities and audited balance sheets, statements with false information etc.
Further during the relevant period, the accused opened four LCs and the conditions in the LC were not uniform. It was also found that the AGM of the bank had not checked the difference in the amount of invoices and confirmation letter which resulted in excess payment by the bank to the borrower. The said AGM had not imposed the condition to transport goods through IBA approved transporters and allowed the accused to submit lorry receipts where the transporter was not in the approved list of IBA.
He had also amended LC terms and conditions without the approval of the sanctioning authority and thereby exceeded the delegated powers, officials further stated.
After investigation, a charge sheet was filed against six persons. The trial court found the said accused guilty and convicted them.
