Chennai, Aug 3:
A CBI Court, Chennai has convicted and sentenced eight accused persons, including two public servants, and six private persons, to 10 years Rigorous Imprisonment (RI) in a Rs 1.97 crore 2007-08 bank fraud case.
A CBI release here said the accused are public servants — N. Gopalakrishnan, the then Branch Manager, SBI, Chengam Branch and P. Balamurali, the then Rural Marketing and
Recovery Officer, SBI, Chengam Branch — and six private inidividuals R.Venkataraman, S. Ravi, D. Sankar, R. Rajan, P. Pannerselvam, and T. Murugan.
While convicting and senting them, the Court has imposed a fine of Rs. 50 lakh each on N. Gopalakrishnan, P. Balamurali, R.Venkataraman, S. Ravi, and D. Sankar, while a fine of Rs 20 lakh were imposed on R. Rajan, P. Pannerselvam, and T. Murugan.
The CBI registered the case on September 23, 2011 based on a complaint by the Regional Manager, Region-V, SBI, Chengalpet. It was alleged that during the period from October 2007 to May 2008 three then officials of SBI India, Chengam Branch Viz., the accused N. Gopalakrishnan, the then Branch Manager, K. Ravichandran, the then Deputy Mangaer (Advances) and P.Balamurali, the then officer (Marketing and Recovery), connived with K. Purushothaman, Proprietor of M/s Kanthamma Milk Chilling Plant, Chengam Taluk and others in the matter of sanction of 728 diary loans for a total amount of Rs.2,32,96,000 in tripartite arrangement with it based on the fraudulent and forged applications and loan documents submitted in the name of purported borrowers, without following the pre and post sanction formalities
prescribed for diary loans, which resulted in a total wrongful loss of Rs.1,97,27,692 to the bank.
Upon completion of investigation, the CBI filed the chargesheet on June 25, 2013 against ten accused and the charges were framed against them by the trial court on May 1, 2016. During the trial,Ā Purushothaman and Ravichandran died and charges against them were abated.
The Court, after the trial, convicted the remaining eight accused and sentenced them accordingly.