Dehradun, March 31 – A Special CBI Court in Dehradun on Tuesday sentenced a former rural bank manager to four years of rigorous imprisonment and handed down one-year sentences to 11 others in a Rs 3.39 crore loan fraud case, an official said.
Ram Avtar Singh Dinkar, the then Branch Manager of Uttarakhand Gramin Bank, Bazpur Branch, in Udham Singh Nagar district, Uttarakhand, was sent to rigorous imprisonment for four years with a fine of Rs 50,000, the CBI said in a statement.
The Special CBI Court also sentenced 11 private individuals – Ram Singh, Harjeet Singh, Diwan Singh, Hardutt Singh, Jasvir Singh, Balkar Singh, Pooran Chand, Deedar Singh, Mahesh Kumar, Gurdeep Singh, and Sona Singh – to one year of rigorous imprisonment with a total fine of Rs 3.3 lakh in the bank fraud case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered the case on June 19, 2018, based on a written complaint received from the General Manager, Uttarakhand Gramin Bank, Head Office, Dehradun (Uttarakhand).
The complaint alleged that during 2014-15, the accused, Dinkar, the then Branch Manager of Uttarakhand Gramin Bank, in criminal conspiracy with a private tractor dealer, K.G.N. Tractors and Equipment, Doraha, Bazpur, fraudulently sanctioned and disbursed KCC/crop loans and agricultural term loans in violation of the bank's guidelines and procedures.
The accused public servant allegedly misused crop loans as margin money for agricultural term loans, and the bank funds were sent to the tractor dealer KGN Tractors and Equipment, the CBI said.
However, no agricultural machinery was purchased, resulting in a financial loss of Rs 3.39 crore to the bank.
After completing the investigation, the CBI filed a chargesheet on December 24, 2018, against the accused.
The Special Court, after trial, convicted and sentenced the above-mentioned accused accordingly, accepting the evidence presented by the CBI to prove the accused's culpability.