Seven jailed for defrauding bank in Delhi
Business Standard New Delhi
February 16, 2014
A court here has sentenced four bank officials and three other people to three years' jail for defrauding a bank to the tune of Rs.1.14 crore, and said their act has eroded common man's confidence in the banking institution.
"The conduct in which the convicts herein had indulged not only lowers the image of public servants, as well as the system, but also erodes the confidence which a common man has in the banking institution, as such," the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Special Judge Kanwaljeet Arora said in an order delivered last week.
The court added that this erosion of faith of the common man, who is the source of public money, being an investor - which is then utilised by the bank for its business - makes the banking structure brittle, which then starts crumbling.
The court said that public money should not be misused or misappropriated for any undue financial advantage.
Judge Arora awarded jail term to three senior retired bank officers H.Surendra Shetty, K. Vasanth Kumar Shetty and H. Balakrishna Shetty with serving bank officers A. Maillappa Rai, then working as a manager, foreign exchange department.
The court also sentenced Rakesh Kumar Bhatia, the principal borrower, Jiya Lal Arora, the guarantor, and Vijendra Kumar, the empanelled valuer with complainant bank.
The court slapped a fine of Rs.10 lakh on Bhatia, Rs.2 Lakh on Jiya Lal Arora and Rs.1 lakh on the four bank officers each. Vijender Kumar was asked to pay a fine of Rs.50,000.
They all were facing trial for a criminal conspiracy during 1994-1998, for defrauding Vijaya Bank at Barakhamba Road here.
They availed various credit facilities on the basis of fake collateral security in the name of a man who did not even exist and caused a wrongful loss to the bank and gain to Rakesh Kumar Bhatia.
The court said that public servants, entrusted with the domain over public money, are expected to deal with it with utmost propriety and transparency in order to keep the economic equilibrium of the society in place.
The court noted that the offence of cheating, impersonation, creation of false report and use of false and forged documents as genuine, were committed in furtherance of the larger conspiracy.
Civil court dismisses DCHL plea-Times of India 16.02.2016
HYDERABAD: In yet another blow to beleaguered Deccan Chronicle Holdings Ltd (DCHL), the city civil court of Secunderabad has dismissed a petition filed by the debt-strapped company seeking an injunction order to prevent Federal Bank Ltd from freezing two current accounts it had opened with the bank.
These accounts were opened by DCHL with Federal Bank's Secunderabad branch on November 2, 2012, at a time when several lenders like ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, IFCI, Jammu and Kashmir Bank, HDFC, SBH, among others, had started legal proceedings seeking recovery of their dues running into over Rs 4,000 crore.
On September 19, 2013, Federal Bank issued a notice to DCHL asking it to furnish the details of loans it had taken from various lenders and also to obtain a no-objection certificate from lenders like ICICI Bank, failing which it would freeze its accounts being operated from its branch. Challenging this, PK Iyer, one of the directors of DCHL, filed a plea in the civil court seeking an injunction against Federal Bank freezing its accounts. Federal Bank told the court that it had received a letter from ICICI Bank asking it to freeze the DCHL accounts because the company had failed to repay the huge loans it took from them as well as scores of other banks.
ICICI also cited RBI guidelines for bankers that made it mandatory for rival banks to discourage opening of current accounts of those who defaulted on payments to other banks.
After hearing the arguments, the senior civil judge dismissed the DCHL plea.
Incidentally, DCHL had also opened a similar account with Punjab National Bank, which too was frozen following a letter from ICICI Bank. However, DCHL was successful in getting PNB to de-freeze the account thanks to an interim stay granted by the AP High Court.
These accounts were opened by DCHL with Federal Bank's Secunderabad branch on November 2, 2012, at a time when several lenders like ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, IFCI, Jammu and Kashmir Bank, HDFC, SBH, among others, had started legal proceedings seeking recovery of their dues running into over Rs 4,000 crore.
On September 19, 2013, Federal Bank issued a notice to DCHL asking it to furnish the details of loans it had taken from various lenders and also to obtain a no-objection certificate from lenders like ICICI Bank, failing which it would freeze its accounts being operated from its branch. Challenging this, PK Iyer, one of the directors of DCHL, filed a plea in the civil court seeking an injunction against Federal Bank freezing its accounts. Federal Bank told the court that it had received a letter from ICICI Bank asking it to freeze the DCHL accounts because the company had failed to repay the huge loans it took from them as well as scores of other banks.
ICICI also cited RBI guidelines for bankers that made it mandatory for rival banks to discourage opening of current accounts of those who defaulted on payments to other banks.
After hearing the arguments, the senior civil judge dismissed the DCHL plea.
Incidentally, DCHL had also opened a similar account with Punjab National Bank, which too was frozen following a letter from ICICI Bank. However, DCHL was successful in getting PNB to de-freeze the account thanks to an interim stay granted by the AP High Court.
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