Lucknow Court Sentences UCO Bank Manager & Assistant Manager To 3-7 Years, Fines Rs. 8.25 Lakhs for Misappropriating Public Funds
(Judicial Quest News Network)
Lucknow 04, October, 2024
The Special Judge at the CBI Court in Lucknow has handed down two separate sentences to public servants involved in a case of misappropriation of public funds. The court convicted K.K. Mehta, the former Assistant Manager at UCO Bank’s Halsey Road branch in Kanpur, and Vijay Kumar, the former Manager at UCO Bank’s IT College branch in Lucknow, after reviewing two distinct chargesheets.
In the first case, Mehta was sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs. 4.5 lakhs, while Kumar received a three-year sentence and a fine of Rs. 50,000. Both were found guilty of fraudulently misappropriating public funds. The second chargesheet led to another seven-year sentence for Mehta, along with a fine of Rs. 3.25 lakhs, for offenses related to forgery and additional misappropriation.
The CBI initiated the investigation on September 28, 2005, following a complaint from the Assistant General Manager of UCO Bank’s Regional Office in Lucknow. The complaint alleged that Mehta, Kumar, and others engaged in a conspiracy that involved forging security documents such as Fixed Deposit Receipts (FDRs) between June 1997 and November 2004. They allegedly used stolen FDR books to issue false receipts, claiming they were from UCO Bank branches in Chandrawal and Jamu, and misappropriated funds by fraudulently liquidating loans.
The investigation revealed that during his tenure from 1997 to 2005, Mehta conspired with Kumar to secure two loans in the name of Roopam, totalling Rs. 1.1 lakhs, based on FDRs that were later forged. The withdrawn funds were misappropriated for personal use, including making a demand draft to a share brokerage firm.
In the second case, Mehta was found to have dishonestly obtained nine loans totalling Rs. 4.16 lakhs using fictitious FDRs, further misappropriating these funds by adjusting them against the forged documents. The total fines imposed on both accused amount to Rs. 8.25 lakhs across both chargesheets.
