Two men sentenced to 4 yrs RI for cheating bank

According to the Special Public Prosecutor M V Dinakar, M Arjunan, the then Chief Manager at the bank and M A Bala Sundara Vinayagam of Sri Venkateswara Imports and Exports entered into a criminal conspiracy in the matter of sanctioning and availing the credit facilities by fabricating records in 2006. The prosecution submitted that Vinayagam had forged documents by claiming that his firm had exported textile goods to the United States of America via Thoothukudi port. He had submitted 13 bills like Bill of Lading, Export Bills etc to show export of consignments to avail the credit facilities from bank.

The issue came to light when the bank audited the branch and found those fraudulent transactions and filed a case with CBI in 2009. The prosecution contended that even though Arjunan had no authorization to sanction the said amount, he colluded with Vinayagam intending to cheat the bank.

Special Court Judge S Jawahar, who presided over the court found the accused guilty and sentenced to undergo 4 years of RI. Arjunan was imposed a fine of Rs 3 lakh and Vinayagam was imposed a fine of Rs 7 lakh. In case of default, the duo was sentenced to undergo 6 months’ imprisonment.