GUWAHATI, Sept 4 - A CBI court today convicted a State Bank of India (SBI) official and the proprietor of a city-based car dealer for conspiring and getting over 100 loans worth around Rs 2 crore sanctioned in fictitious persons� names. They were sentenced to four years in jail.
The accused Romen Das while working as the branch manager of Sonakuchi HPC Ltd Branch of the SBI conspired with Pratul Kumar Ghosh, proprietor of M/s Ghosh Brothers, Guwahati to sanction 86 second hand car loans and 63 �Big Buy� loans to some fictitious persons.
The borrowers of these loans were said to have worked in the Northeast Frontier Railway. The loans were sanctioned on the basis of certain forged and false documents, arranged and submitted by Ghosh. Loans were granted to the tune of Rs 1.90 crore.
Delivering the judgement, Special CBI Judge Imtiaz Ali said the crimes committed by the accused are actually public wrongs which are committed against the society and the gravity attached to these offences is concentrated at public at large.
The documents submitted with the loan applications were forged and fabricated. Romen Das sanctioned the loans and issued banker�s cheques in the name of M/s Ghosh Brothers and the said cheques were credited in the current account of M/s Ghosh Brothers on different dates.
The Northeast Frontier Railway, which was shown as the employer of the borrowers sponsored by M/s Ghosh Brothers, denied that such persons were their employees. M/s Ghosh Brothers produced documents in respect of cars which were purportedly owned by them against which they arranged finance from the bank aggregating huge amount by submitting false registration certificates of RTO, Calcutta.
M/s Ghosh Brothers also submitted forged insurance cover notes indicating the names of fictitious borrowers.
The case was taken up by the CBI after the SBI vigilance cell detected the irregularities.
Romen Das has been convicted under the Prevention of Corruption Act and four IPC sections, while Ghosh has been convicted under four IPC sections � 120(b), 420, 468 and 471.
