The CBI Court in Jaipur has convicted and sentenced 03 Public Servants namely, Ramji Lal Meena, then Branch Manager, Murari Lal Meena, then Special Assistant and Than Singh Lashkar, Peon cum Housekeeper of Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC), Sheosinghpura, Lalsot, Dausa, to Rigorous Imprisonment (RI) for Seven Years with a fine of Rs. 85,000 each, in a bank fraud case.
Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) was merged with Punjab National Bank (PNB) with effect from 1 April 2020. United Bank of India was also merged into PNB as part of the same consolidation.
The case was registered on 01.02.2019 on the complaint lodged by the then Deputy General Manager, Oriental Bank of Commerce.
The complaint alleged that Murari Lal Meena, then Special Assistant, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Sheosinghpura, Lalsot, Dausa abused his official position by dishonestly issuing unauthorized ‘No Dues Certificates’ thereby facilitating the release of mortgaged securities despite outstanding loan liabilities and causing a wrongful loss of Rs. 12,14,660.71 to the bank, across three loan accounts.
A No Dues Certificate is a document issued by a bank to confirm that a borrower has cleared all outstanding dues on a loan. It generally means that the borrower has repaid the required loan amount and there is no pending amount against the loan account.
In this case, the allegation was that an employee issued an unauthorized No Dues Certificate even though the borrowers still had outstanding loan liabilities. Because of this certificate, the bank released the mortgaged securities despite the loans not being fully cleared.
After investigation, the CBI filed chargesheet on 05.05.2022 against the three accused Public Servants namely, Murari Lal Meena, Ramji Lal Meena and Than Singh Lakshkar of Oriental Bank of Commerce.
The Hon’ble Court, after the trial, convicted and sentenced the accused, accordingly.
