Chennai, 20 August (H.S.):A special CBI court in Chennai has sentenced a former Bank of India deputy general manager and five others to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for defrauding the public-sector lender of nearly ₹2.39 crore through credit facilities secured using forged documents.

The six convicts were also ordered to pay fines totalling ₹2.70 crore, the Central Bureau of Investigation said in a statement on Thursday. The agency did not disclose the fine imposed on each accused or the specific penal provisions under which they were convicted.

Those sentenced are former Bank of India deputy general manager N. Venkatachalam; M. Sivakumar, a record clerk at the Sholinganallur taluk office; T. Dasarathan, then village administrative officer of Pazhavanthangal; and former village administrative officer M. Manichavelu. Private individuals O.P. Thamarai Poo and P. Thandapani were also convicted.

The CBI registered the case on May 19, 2010, following a complaint from Bank of India. Investigators alleged that principal accused E. Muthuswamy and others entered into a conspiracy with bank officials and fraudulently obtained credit facilities by submitting false and fabricated documents.

The transactions caused the bank a loss of ₹238.97 lakh, according to the prosecution. Following its investigation, the CBI filed a charge sheet on December 28, 2011, against 12 accused — five public servants and seven private individuals.

The trial continued for several years. Four accused — Muthuswamy, A. Vincent, K. Srikanth and M. Jothi — died while proceedings were pending, resulting in the charges against them being abated.

Proceedings against V. Umapathy, a suspended senior draftsman in the Land and Survey Department, were separated and are continuing under a different case, numbered CC 18 of 2016.

Another accused, Lavanya, was acquitted. The CBI statement did not provide details of the loan accounts, properties or documents used to perpetrate the fraud.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Arun Lakshman