Ex-AGM of Punjab National Bank, 3 businessmen sentenced to 5 years jail, penalty

HYDERABAD: Former Assistant General Manager of Banjara Hills branch or Punjab National Bank R P Garg and three other private businessmen were sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment and were levied a penalty of Rs 75,000 each.

The special judge for CBI cases, Hyderabad, sentenced R. P. Garg; Jitender Kumar Agarwal, then MD of M/s. Sheetal Refineries Limited; Sudhir Bhuraria, authorised signatory and a director Manish Bhuraria to undergo the punishment. The court also imposed a fine of Rs. 2 lakh on the private company.

The CBI had registered a case on August 2, 2016 against Sheetal Refineries Limited Gangapahad, Rangareddy district, and its directors on the charges of committing a bank fraud and causing a loss of Rs. 53.82 crore to Punjab National Bank.

It was alleged that the accused had availed credit facilities from PNB Large Corporate Branch, Hyderabad and presented false statements/documents/information to the bank with respect to share application money, false stock statements for availing the credit facilities and audited balance sheets, statements with false information etc.

It was further alleged that during the relevant period, the accused opened four letters of credit and the conditions in the letter of credit were not uniform.

It was also alleged that then AGM had not checked the difference in the amount of invoices and confirmation letter which resulted in excess payment by the Bank to the borrower. The AGM had not imposed the condition to transport goods through Indian Banks Association-approved transporters and allowed the accused to submit lorry receipts where the transporter was not in the approved list of IBA.

He had also amended terms & conditions of the letter of credit without the approval of the sanctioning authority and thereby exceeded the delegated powers.

After investigation, a charge sheet was filed against six accused including Garg, and others before the designated court at Hyderabad on September 23, 2016. The then CMD of M/s. Sheetal Refineries Limited expired and the case against him was abated by the Trial Court.

The Court found the other accused guilty and convicted them.