A Chennai court has sentenced a CEO and two others to five years in prison for a bank fraud scheme that cost Bank of India ₹2 crore. The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate for CBI cases in Egmore also imposed a hefty fine on the three convicts.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered the case in 2008 based on a complaint from Bank of India against P. Senthil Kumar, CEO and Chairman of PalpapItchinichi Software International Ltd., and others.
The accused allegedly opened 149 fake loan accounts under the Star Personal Loan Scheme at the bank’s Anna Salai branch in Chennai. They fabricated salary slips and identity cards to make it appear as if the loans were taken by employees of their company. The loans were never repaid, causing a significant financial loss to the bank.
After a thorough investigation, the CBI filed a charge sheet against the accused in 2009. Following the trial, the court found Senthil Kumar, S. Kalidasan alias H. Jayakumar, and Thanjan Chezian guilty and sentenced them to five years of imprisonment each. Senthil Kumar was slapped with a hefty fine of ₹2.07 crore, while the other two convicts were fined ₹1 lakh each.
This is rather a commonplace episode, happening almost everyday everywhere in India, while genuine individual customers like widows and women, low income group customers, all alike, are treated like beggars. I can give many instances.
Why I thought it was necessary to react on this story is that, without the connivance of bank officials, such fraudulent activities are never possible, since they are usually partners in these frauds.
There used to be an infamous ITP in the then Madras (now Chennai), openly and brazenly masquerading as a Chartered Accountant (fortunately convicted after 4 decades of continuing fraudulent activities inter alia of falsely claiming and receiving income ta refunds in the names of non-existent people in whose name he used to file ITRs), who used to certify the counts of prospective business loan applicants signing as “Auditor”!
In ther words, cheating and fraudulent activities are in our DNA and there is no authority who can even fight against this mindset–what to talk of a policy of “zero tolerance to corruption”!
Hh my lon