NEW DELHI: Delhi court on Thursday awarded three-year jail term to Madhya Pradesh Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti in a cheating case related to forging of bank records to obtain illegal interest payments between 1998 and 2011.
Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh also awarded three year imprisonment to a former cashier Raghuvir Sharan Prajapati. The judge further directed Bharti to pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh, while Rs 1.5 lakh fine was imposed on Prajapati.
The judge, however, released both the convicts on bail for 60 days to enable them to file appeal against the order.
“Both the convicts are admitted to bail for a period of 60 days from today for enabling them to file Appeals before High Court in the present matter. During the period for which they shall remain on bail, the sentence of the present case shall remain suspended,” the judge said.
The court noted that the complainant bank, Zila Sahkari Krishi Gramin Vikas Bank, had already went into liquidation, and directed that the recovered fine amount shall go as compensation to the M P Rajya Sahkari Krishi Avem Gramin Vikas Bank Seemit, Bhopal, being the Head Bank.
The duo was convicted on Wednesday for the offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery of a valuable security, forgery for cheating and using a forged document as genuine.
The court convicted Bharti and former cashier Raghuvir Sharan Prajapati for the offences of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery of a valuable security, forgery for cheating and using a forged document as genuine.
The case, which originated in Madhya Pradesh's Datiya, was transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court in October last year, in light of the claim that efforts were made to intimidate defence witnesses.
“Accused Bharti and accused Raghuvir Sharan Prajapati, along with Savitri Devi (deceased) and possibly other unknown persons, entered into a criminal conspiracy and the object of this conspiracy was to cheat the complainant bank (Zila Sahkari Krishi Aur Grahmin Vikas Bank) by continuing to draw interest at a much higher rate beyond 2011, which was the initial fixed deposit (FD) duration of three years,” the judge said.
Proceedings against Bharti's mother, Savitri, were abated after she died in 2019.
According to the prosecution, Savitri, Bharti's late mother, deposited Rs 10 lakhs in the Zila Sahkari Krishi Aur Grahmin Vikas Bank at Datiya on August 24, 1998, and the deposit was made in the name of a family-run trust for a fixed deposit (FD) of three years at an interest rate of 13.5 per cent per annum.
It alleged that the accused entered into a conspiracy to extend the high-interest payments beyond the stipulated period by physically tampering with bank records.
Using correction fluid and overwriting, the three-year term was extended by 10 and 15 years, allowing the trust to continue withdrawing annual interest payments till 2011, long after market interest rates had plummeted, the prosecution claimed.
It alleged that the trust, where Bharti was a trustee, illegally withdrew around Rs 18.5 lakhs as interest.
In its order, the court said that Bharti, who served as the Chairman of the bank during the period of the fraud used his position to pressure employees and facilitate the unauthorised payments to his family trust.