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A special CBI court on Tuesday awarded five years' rigorous imprisonment (RI) to a former assistant general manager (AGM) in Punjab National Bank's (PNB) Banjara Hills branch here along with a fine for his involvement in a bank loan fraud of amounting to Rs 53.82 crore.
The court awarded jail terms to R.P. Garg, then AGM at PNB, Jitender Kumar Agarwal, then MD of Sheetal Refineries Limited, Sudhir Bhuraria, authorised signatory, and Manish Bhuraria, along with a fine of Rs 75,000 each. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on a private company. The CBI had registered the case on February 19, 2016 against Sheetal Refineries Limited and its directors on the allegations of committing bank fraud and causing a loss of Rs 53.82 crore to the Punjab National Bank. All the accused had availed credit facilities from PNB's corporate branch in Hyderabad against false statements and documents. The accused persons opened four LCs in which the conditions were not uniform. The then AGM at PNB didn't check the difference in the amount of invoices and confirmation letters which resulted in excess payment by the bank to the borrowers. The AGM didn't impose the condition to transport goods through IBA approved transporters and allowed the accused to submit lorry receipts wherein the transporter was not in the approved list of IBA. He had also amended LC terms and conditions without the approval of the sanctioning authority and thereby exceeded his delegated powers. After investigation, a charge sheet was filed against six accused persons, including Garg, Sheetal Refineries Limited and its MD and others, before a designated court in Hyderabad on November 23, 2016. The then CMD of Sheetal Refineries Limited passed away during the course of investigation and the case against him was abated by the trial court. --IANS atk/arm ( 315 Words) 2023-05-09-21:36:04 (IANS)
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