Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai

Mumbai, Apr 27: Six men, including a branch head of a public sector bank were booked to life imprisonment for allegedly taking a loan of Rs 1.5 crore on false documents from the bank.

Manoharlal Ahuja, Amit Ahuja, Mahesh Bohra, Sandesh Nage, Shantilal Chauhan and Bhagwan Das Joshi were sentenced to life imprisonment and were fined Rs 1.53 crore each, while another accused Yunus Memon was handed a three-year jail term with a fine of over Rs 4 lac.

It is said that the loan was disbursed to Manoharlal and Amit by Bank of India’s Mandvi branch between 2000 and 2003 for business purposes. According to the prosecution led by J K Sharma and Rakesh Bhatnagar, the Ahujas submitted documents pertaining to balance sheets and income tax as well as the titled deed of an open plot located in Versova valued at Rs 3 crore at the time of applying for the loan. The prosecution alleged that the open plot did not exist and a forged title deed was submitted as collateral.

Bohra, a chartered accountant, was arrested for providing false certificate stating that the firm is in good financial condition by forging its balance sheets and preparing false documents for the non-existing open plot. Bohra also received the proceeds and opened an account in the name of shell companies maintained in various public sector banks.

Nage and Chauhan were arrested for faking the title deed of the plot by showing a purchaser and a borrower. Joshi, the assistant general manager and branch head of the bank, sanctioned the loan and allowed the Ahujas to encash the payment without monitoring the account or verifying the antecedents and credentials of borrowers.

Memon was part of a panel of several nationalised banks that provided legal opinion in the form of title deeds of properties offered as collateral. Memon mentioned in his report that he had visited the property and verified it with the registrar’s office.