Court convicts SBI manager for fraud

G Gopal Raj, chief manager of State Bank of India (SBI), Cottage Industry Branch, has been awarded five-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs1.5 lakh in a bank fraud case.
The CBI court of special judge Beelaben Trivedi convicted both Raj and his accomplice in crime, Kishore Purohit, MD of Alex Cable Limited, of cheating and awarded them five-year imprisonment and fine of Rs1.5 lakh each.

According to case details, by using secret user ID, Raj caused a loss of Rs183.72 lakh to the bank. The scam was orchestrated in the year 1997-98, when Raj was the chief manger of SBI’s cottage industry branch. Raj, in connivance with Kishore Purohit, transferred Rs183.72 lakh in the account of Purohit without using the credit/debit voucher.
Both Raj and Purohit have been booked under various sections of the IPC, including 120 (B), 420, 478 and others. Around 120 documents were submitted and 22 witnesses examined in this case.