The court upheld the conviction of the bank manager for fraudulent loan disbursement, establishing the necessity of verification in banking processes, while acquitting another co-accused due to insufficient evidence.

JUDGMENT :

B.P. Routray, J.

1. Sole Appellant in CRA No.275 of 2000 and both the Appellants in CRA No.284 of 2000 were prosecuted in T.R.No.127/51of 1999/97 with accusations for commission of offences under Sections 419 , 420, 468, 471 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code along with Section 13 (1)(d) read with 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act , 1988 in respect of the Appellant in CRA No.275 of 2000. All the Appellants have been convicted accordingly for all such offences they were charged with by learned Special Judge (CBI), Bhubaneswar and have been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year along with fine for each such offence.

Both the appeals being arise out of the same trial, are heard together and disposed of by this common judgment.

2. Gopal Krushna Behera, the Appellant in CRA No.275 of 2000 is the Branch Manager of Chowki Branch of UCO Bank under Bhogarai Police Station in the district of Balasore. The Branch Office of the Bank was functioning in the rented building belonging to Appellant No.1 (Bhagirathi Panda) in CRA No.284 of 2000. All the three Appellants entered into criminal conspiracy to defraud and cheat the Bank by advancing Agriculture Term Loan of Rs.20,000/- in the name of one Umarani Panda (P.W.8) and Rs.10,000/- in the name of another Bijaya Panda (P.W.7), both belonging to the same village of Chowki. Bhagirathi Panda and Debendra Kumar Panda, both Appellants in CRA No.284 of 2000 stood as guarantor in respect of Umarani Panda and Bijaya Panda respectively and furnished required documents accordingly. Gopal Krushna Behera, the Appellant in CRA No.275 of 2000 sanctioned and disbursed the loans through Savings Bank Account No.1515 & 1516 in the capacity of Branch Manager. Upon detection of the fraud subsequently, F.I.R. was lodged by the Inspector of C.B.I. on 12th August 1994, which was registered as R.C.No.50(A) of 1994 at Bhubaneswar.

3. The Appellants denied charges and pleaded their innocence. It is pleaded by Gopal Krushna that being the Branch Manager, he sanctioned and disbursed the loan amounts in the name of both applicants upon proper verification of documents and those two applicants signed in his presence under guarantee of Bhagirathi Panda and Debendra Kumar Panda. These two other Appellants, who stood as guarantors for the loan amounts, pleaded that they had several transactions in said Branch of UCO Bank and in connection with such transactions they had given their signatures on some blank forms and papers which were subsequently utilized to create the guarantee documents in their names for these alleged loan transactions in the name of Umarani and Bijaya.

4. Prosecution examined eleven witnesses and marked series of documents from Ext.1 to 29 series. Among those witnesses for prosecution, P.W.4 is the successor Branch Manager of Chowki Branch, P.W.10 is the Investigating Officer and P.W.11 is the Government Examiner (Handwriting Expert) of Questioned Document. P.W.7 & 8 as indicated earlier are the purported loanees. Ext.12 and 16 are the loan application forms. Ext.12 series and 16 series are the hypothecation and guarantee documents. Ext.13 and 17 are the concerned Ledger-sheets and Ext.29 is the opinion with reasoning of P.W.11. Ext.24 series and 25 series are the specimen signatures of Bhagirathi Panda and Debendra Kumar Panda respectively. The questioned documents, specimen signatures and admitted signatures of Gopal Krushna are under Ext.7 to 10.

5. Two witnesses were examined in defence from the side of Gopal Krushna and two more witnesses were also examined from the side of B