Chennai: Nearly 15 years after the State Bank of India (SBI) was defrauded of ₹1.97 crore, a special CBI court has convicted eight people, including two former bank officials, sentencing each to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and imposing fines ranging from ₹20 lakh to ₹50 lakh.Those convicted are N Gopalakrishnan, then branch manager of SBI’s Chengam branch, P Balamurali, then rural marketing and recovery officer at the same branch, and six private individuals — R Venkataraman, S Ravi, D Sankar, R Rajan, P Panneerselvam and T Murugan. The case dates back to 2011.The case relates to 2007-08, when K Purushothaman, who ran Kanthamma Milk Chilling Plant in Chengam, allegedly secured 728 dairy loans totalling ₹2.34 crore using forged documents in collusion with officials of SBI’s Chengam branch. Investigators found that mandatory pre- and post-sanction procedures for dairy loans were bypassed, causing a wrongful loss of ₹1.97 crore to the bank.Based on a complaint in 2011, CBI registered a case and filed the chargesheet against the accused in 2013. The trial ended in the conviction of the accused. Since Purushothaman and another bank official, K Ravichandran, died during the trial, the proceedings against them were abated.
