MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday convicted and sentenced five persons, including a bank manager and two former officials of the Madurai Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), for cheating a property owner and a private sector bank by undervaluing a property and auctioning it without following public auction procedure.
Justice KK Ramakrishnan passed the order on an appeal filed by the CBI challenging the acquittal of the above individuals — recovery officer S Kasimayan and upper division clerk R Selvaraj of Madurai DRT, Selvaraj's wife R Anitha and brother-in-law R Rajesh Kannan, and bank manager N Vakeeswaran — by the II Additional District Court for CBI Cases, Madurai in 2016.
According to the order, the property owner had obtained a loan from the Mumbai branch of the aforementioned bank by mortgaging three of his properties. But he suffered a loss in his business and was unable to repay the loan amount, following which recovery proceedings were initiated before the Mumbai DRT. The proceedings were eventually transferred to Madurai DRT.
The CBI claimed that in order to cheat the property owner and the bank, the above five persons conspired together and sold the property at a lesser price by conducting the auction in a clandestine manner, to ensure that the property was sold to Anitha and Kannan. Though the property owner moved the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal (DRAT), Mumbai and a stay order was granted before the confirmation of the sale, Kasimayan issued a sale certificate. However, the trial court acquitted them citing loopholes in the prosecution.
Observing that the CBI has produced sufficient materials to prove the charges and the trial court should not have acquitted the above accused, Justice KK Ramakrishnan set aside the order of acquittal and sentenced the five accused to five years rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 6 lakh each. It could be noted that before the high court questioned the accused for sentencing, the accused produced an order copy from the Supreme Court, which said that if the accused are sentenced, their sentence should remain suspended for three weeks from March 27.