The court confirmed that conspiracy and fraudulent manipulation of bank deposits through forged documents constituted serious offences, resulting in wrongful loss and gain, warranting strict penalties under respective legal provisions.

JUDGMENT :

G. JAYACHANDRAN, J.

1. The appellants before this Court are the accused in C.C.No.11 of 2002, on the file of the 11^th Additional City Civil Court, CBI Cases related to Bank and Finance Institutions, Chennai.

2. Based on the complaint given by T.R.Chawla, Deputy General Manager, Chennai Region of Dena Bank, Chennai, on 12.03.2001 to the Superintendent of Police, SPE, CBI, ACB, Chennai, the respondent police registered a complaint in RC. No. MA1 2001 A 0006 on 14.03.2001 against one Shri Bharat Sha and 9 others. The said complaint by T.R.Chawla was consequence of the complaint received from one of the customers of Dena Bank regarding commission of fraud at Dena Bank, Vellore branch relating to Foreign Currency Non Resident [FCNR] deposit. The customer by name K.Sinnappan and S.Arukkani, residence of Singapore alleged that they made FCNR deposit in account No.310 for a sum of Rs.522739.38 USD on 18.08.2000 through one Bharath Shah. The said deposit had been used for taking loan without their authority. Further enquiry in the bank has revealed that contrary to the procedure and rules framed under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, the Branch Manager Shri V.Ramasamy [A4] had sanctioned overdraft of Rs.1.72 Crores in favour of M/s.Kataria Exports Private Limited and as a collateral security, FCNR deposit been used without knowledge of the depositor. The fraudulent act been carried out pursuant to the conspiracy among Shri Bharat Shah through whom the depositor remitted the money. Vinod Lohiya, Rajesh Kataria, J.V.Payani and M/s.Kataria Exports Private Limited are private individuals, V.Ramasamy and M.Venkatakrishnan both are Managers of Dena bank at the relevant point of time. The Chief Manager T.R.V.Dixit, Natarajan and Krishnaswamy were other persons suspected to be the accused in this complaint. T.R.Chawla made similar complaint on 08.05.2001 in respect of commission of fraud in FCNR deposit account No.1984, which is in the name of Mr.Ashok Issardoss Lakhani and Roopa Ashok Lakhani, this complaint was registered in RC.No.MA1 2001 A 0015. On the even date another complaint in respect of FCNR account No.10002 was made by Mrs.P.Jayalakhmi Rao and Chaitanya Kumar Rao, this complaint was registered in RC No.MA1 2001 A 0021. The 4^th complaint by T.R.Chawla, the Deputy General Manager was on even date in respect of FCNR account No.304 in the name of Harish V.Pawani and Mrs.Bharati H Pawani, this complaint was registered in RC.No.MA1 2001 A 0022 on 23.05.2001.

3. As per the complaint given by T.R.Chawla, the modus operandi in all these cases of fraud is that the Non Residence Indian living abroad through third parties have deposited money under the FCNR scheme. Their deposit been used to avail overdraft facility by Rajesh Kataria, Director of M/s.Kataria Exports Private Limited without the knowledge of the depositors. For the said purpose, the FCNR deposit receipts been forged. The original has been retained by the intermediaries, who facilitated the depositors to deposit their money, and fabricated receipts were sent to the depositors. They all came to know about the fraud only when the letter of confirmation emanated by the Dena bank.

4. The respondent police on completion of investigation filed single final report, which was taken on file by the Special Court for CBI Cases in C.C.No.11 of 2001. At the time of framing of charge, one of the accused by name Vinod Lohiya died and the charge against him got abated. As against the remaining five accused, the following charges were framed:

Charge No.1: FIRSTLY that you A1 to A5 during the period 1999-2001, conspired together at Chennai and Vellore and other places in Tamil Nadu and in furtherance of that you cheated the Dena Bank by raising fraudulent loans against FCNR deposits without the knowledge of the depositors and without confirmation from the depositors and based on fabricated/forged documents such as Account opening terms, lien letters, etc, and you forged the signature of t