Pune, July 7 (IANS) A special CBI court has convicted and sentenced two proprietors of private companies to three years of rigorous imprisonment in a bank fraud case involving a wrongful loss of more than Rs 5.5 crore to the State Bank of Hyderabad, an official statement said on Tuesday.

The convicted persons are Chandrakant Lodha, proprietor of M/s Chandrakant S. Lodha & Co., and Paresh Thakkar, proprietor of M/s Thakkar and Sons. The court pronounced the judgment on Monday.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered the case on October 9, 2001, against B.R. Dagde, the then Branch Manager of the State Bank of Hyderabad, V.L. Kale, the then Assistant Manager, Lodha, and Thakkar, based on a complaint filed by the bank.

According to the CBI, the accused allegedly conspired to cheat the bank by depositing high-value cheques, which were allowed to be credited without waiting for their clearance by the issuing bank.

The investigation revealed that, as part of the alleged criminal conspiracy, Lodha deposited 18 high-value accommodation cheques amounting to Rs 6.75 crore. These cheques had been issued by Thakkar from his proprietorship account maintained with Nashik People’s Cooperative Bank and were processed by the bank.

The CBI further alleged that Kale, with the approval of Branch Manager Dagde, authorised withdrawals by permitting Lodha to issue high-value cheques from his current account even before the deposited cheques had been cleared. Taking advantage of this facility, Lodha allegedly issued cheques in his own name as well as in the names of his associate concerns, including M/s A.C. Enterprises and M/s Akshay Traders, causing a wrongful loss of Rs 5.58 crore to the bank.

After completing its investigation, the CBI filed a charge sheet on August 28, 2003, against all four.

In 2025, the case was transferred from the Nashik court to the Pune court following the reorganisation of the jurisdiction of CBI courts in Maharashtra.

The CBI court convicted Lodha and Thakkar, but bank officials Dagde and Kale were acquitted of all charges.

–IANS

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