CBI court convicts five in Meghalaya loan fraud

SHILLONG - A special CBI court in Meghalaya has convicted five people, including a top official of the Punjab National Bank (PNB), and sentenced them to two years’ imprisonment in a Rs.69.75 lakh loan scam.

Special Judge S.R. Sen also imposed a fine of Rs.5,000 each on the five.

A criminal case against them was registered in 1992 while the charge sheet was filed in March 1994 under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

V.K. Rangacharyulu, the then assistant general manager of PNB, was convicted for showing undue favour to the director of M/s Tricon Hotel Pvt Ltd in Shillong by sanctioning loans and advances amounting to Rs.69.75 lakh on the basis of false documents for the creation of a 3-star hotel in Shillong in 1988.

Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) legal prosecutor V.K. Jindal said the amount was taken on a loan basis but the money was never put to any use.

Rangacharyulu and Hari Narayan Wadhwa were convicted as the key men behind the 22-year-old scam, while Jahar Lal Das, the then senior accountant at the office of accountant general, Assam, was accused of facilitating the sanction of the loan amount.

Dhiresh Kumar Chakraborty, the then director of M/S Tricon Hotels, Aparesh Purkayastha and Aparesh D. Purkayastha of Shillong were also convicted in the case.