Two IOB staffers get five-year rigorous imprisonment for embezzling funds

HYDERABAD:  Special Judge for CBI Cases, Hyderabad has awarded a rigorous prison sentence to two Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) employees and their seven accomplices, which ranged from three to five years, for embezzlement of funds from the bank.

A case was registered in November 2005, after a complaint of misappropriation of funds was lodged.
Later, during the investigation, the CBI found that former Chief Manager and Senior Manager Souman Chakraborty and Sankaraman Padmanabhan respectively, of the IOB, main branch, Bank Street, Hyderabad, and seven others were involved in sanctioning loans, accepting fake documents as sureties and siphoned off `221.33 lakh.

Sleuths found out that the two bank officers in collusion with their accomplices sanctioned 13 housing loans on the basis of fake IT returns, lapsed LIC policies and fake title deeds as collateral security. Chakraborty and Padmanabhan further sanctioned a term loan and a cash credit facility on the basis of bogus quotations from the suppliers and fake title deeds between October 2003 and January 2004. It also came to light that the bank officials had sanctioned the loans through middlemen.

Another case was also registered on May 2007 that the duo colluded and sanctioned a term-loan of `48.83 lakh for the purchase of machinery and a cash credit limit of `20 lakh to Sneha Creations Private Limited, Hyderabad on fictitious property documents, forged surrender value certificates of LIC policies as collateral security, false proforma invoices and receipts of master equipments, milking the bank of `68.83 lakh.

The Special Judge convicted Souman Chakraborty and Sankaraman Padmanabhan with five years rigorous imprisonment and `1 lakh each fine. Two of the seven other accomplices, T Satya Venkata Diwakar and Juluri Lakshmaiah will undergo five years imprisonment with a fine of `75,000 each. Syed Mushtaq Ahmed, Borra Chandrapal, Thota Ravinder, Mosalganti Gopala Rao and Basavanna Ravindra, have been sentenced to 3-yr RI with a fine of `75,000 each.