CHENNAI: The CBI Courts, Chennai on Tuesday convicted and sentenced the directors of a private company, M/s DN International ltd to five years rigorous imprisonment in a Rs 5.75 crore bank fraud case, registered 23 years ago.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 4 lakh each on the Directors, Ketan A Shah, Mukesh A Shah, Ashwin H Shah and Rashmikant Shah and also a fine of Rs 4 lakh fine on the company.
The case was registered by CBI on February 19, 2002 based on information that during 1999-2000, the then Chief Manager of Andhra Bank, Mowbrays Road branch and the accused company and its directors entered into a criminal conspiracy at Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad and caused wrongful loss to Andhra Bank.
According to the CBI, M/s DN International Ltd was involved in the manufacturing, processing and exporting rough and polished diamonds.
The bank official had extended undue favours to the company without safeguarding the interest of Andhra Bank in the matter of
sanctioning/recommending for sanction of packing credit and foreign bills discounted limits. "The accused borrowers diverted the funds and had not utilized the same for the purposes for which the credit facilities were availed. Thereby, the accused persons caused wrongful loss to Andhra Bank to the tune of Rs 5.75 Crore," a CBI statement said.
Chargesheet in the case was filed before the court on May 7, 2004 against 11 persons including bank officials and the directors of the firm.
After trial, the court found the company and the directors guilty. Three accused were acquitted from all charges while charges against three others were abated as they passed away while the trial was underway.