Bank loan fraud: Lucknow PMLA court sentences three convicts to 3-year jail

Lucknow, July 3 (IANS) A Special PMLA court has sentenced three men, including the son of a former Allahabad Bank manager, to three years' imprisonment in connection with defrauding the bank of Rs 3.20 crore through disbursal of loans against fake documents.

Special Judge Rahul Prakash also ordered the confiscation of two properties – valued at Rs 14.76 lakh and Rs 1.65 lakh – in favour of the Central government as a penalty and slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 each on the trio.

The court ordered that in default of fine payment, the three convicts - Mamta Sinha, Ashwini Kumar Singh and Saurabh Sahu (son of the deceased bank manager) - will have to undergo an additional six months of imprisonment.

An Enforcement Directorate official said the court also terminated the bail granted earlier to the three convicts and ordered that they be taken into judicial custody.

According to the ED case, Amarnath Sahu, the former Manager of Allahabad Bank, Jankipuram Branch, Lucknow, was involved in disbursing overdrafts and loans on the basis of fake documents between 2003 and 2005.

A large chunk of the loan money was diverted and used for the purchase of property, it said.

Sentencing the three convicts, Special Judge Prakash said, "It is clear that the accused wrongly obtained the loan without submitting the necessary forms under a criminal conspiracy with the then branch manager Amarnath Sahu (deceased) and used the loan amount for their own benefit."

"In this way, the accused generated the proceeds of money and used the loan amount for their own benefit. The act committed by the accused comes under Section 3 of the PMLA," said the court.

"No other evidence has been presented by the accused contrary to the above fact. Therefore, the crime under Section 3 PMLA against the accused is proved beyond doubt," said Special Judge Prakash.

The Special Court also quoted a Supreme Court verdict while sentencing the three convicts.

"In the case of Vijay Madan Lal Choudhary and others vs Union of India 2022, the Supreme Court has held that money-laundering, that is the cleansing of proceeds of crimes such as extortion, treason, drug trafficking, gun running etc, poses a serious threat to the integrity and sovereignty of a country and also to its financial systems, This threat to the nation and its economy has been recognised the world over and several UN and other international conventions," said the Special Court.

--IANS

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