New Delhi: A Special CBI court in Gujarat on Thursday sentenced a doctor employed in Air India to three year’s rigorous imprisonment, along with a fine of Rs 1 lakh, for demanding a bribe of Rs 25,000 to give a favourable medical report to a new joinee.
In two separate cases, the CBI booked a hotel owner in Uttarakhand for duping a bank of Rs 11 crore and an iron casting company in Rajasthan of Rs 9.62 crore for cheating after taking a loan from a bank, an official said on Thursday.
While hearing the Air India doctor’s case, the Special CBI court in Ahmedabad held Suresh Marotrao Bhagatkar, then engaged with the airline, Mumbai, guilty of indulging in corruption under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
During the trial, the court examined 27 prosecution witnesses and 49 documents/exhibits in support of the charges against the convict.
The CBI had registered the case on January 3, 2011, against Bhagatkar on allegations of bribery/corruption.
It was alleged that the accused conducted a medical examination of a person for his appointment to the post of Security Agent in Air India Air Transport Corporation Limited, a subsidiary of Air India Ltd, and had demanded illegal gratification from the complainant during a conversation over mobile phone to give a favourable blood report.
The doctor had demanded a bribe of Rs 25,000 from the complainant.
When the complainant showed his reluctance to pay the bribe, accused Bhagatkar reiterated his demand for a bribe and asked him to deposit the amount in his bank account, the CBI said.
Subsequently, the doctor sent his account number to the complainant on the phone for depositing the demanded bribe.
An amount of Rs 5,000 was also deposited in above mentioned account as per directions of the accused, the CBI said.
After the completion of the investigation, a chargesheet was filed by the CBI on November 9, 2011, against the accused.
In a separate matter, the federal probe agency booked a private company, Hotel Pine Queen, and unknown persons and public servants for carrying out a fraud of Rs 11.78 crore against Punjab National Bank, New Tehri Uttarakhand, after taking loans from the bank and availing an overdraft facility between 2012 and 2016.
The proprietor of the company Sandeep Panwar was accused by the bank of duping the bank by not mortgaging the land on which the hotel was built but some other piece of land. “The land on which Hotel Pine Queen was constructed was not the same as the land which was mortgaged to the bank,” said the complaint bank’s Chief Manager Sanjeev Kumar Singh.
In another case, the federal agency registered a fraud, misappropriation and criminal breach of trust case against an iron casting company in Rajasthan, M.B. Castings, and its three officials for duping Punjab National Bank, Nehru Place, Jaipur, of Rs 9.62 crore.
The company officials – Krishan Kumar Gupta, Bhavesh Gupta and Madhu Gupta – were also accused of diversion and siphoning of funds. The officials were accused of misappropriating goods hypothecated to the bank, said the CBI in its FIR.
(IANS)
