Chennai court convicts 4 in bank fraud case after 17 years

CHENNAI: The Principal Sessions Judge, Chennai, convicted and sentenced four persons in a bank fraud case investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), while acquitting one accused and abating proceedings against another since he died.

The court also imposed fines totalling ₹5.6 lakh. The case dates back to December 2007, when CBI registered an FIR based on a complaint from the United Bank of India. According to the complaint, M Palanichamy, Managing Director of Galaxy Amaze Kingdom Ltd., Chennai, and others conspired to fraudulently obtain huge credit facilities from the bank by submitting forged and false documents. The fraudulent transactions caused a wrongful loss of about Rs 4.70 crore to the bank.After investigation, CBI filed a chargesheet against six accused in August 2008. When the trial concluded, the court noted that Palanichamy passed away during the course of proceedings, leading to the abatement of charges against him. Another accused, P Parameswari, was acquitted after being found not guilty. However, the court held MP Padmavathy Devi, MP Balaji Prakasam, and PG Selvaraj guilty, sentencing each of them to one year imprisonment and imposing a fine of Rs 20,000 on each.

In addition, the company, Galaxy Amaze Kingdom Ltd., was directed to pay a fine of ₹5 lakh.

The ruling brings closure to a case that was under trial for nearly 17 years, exposing the scale of fraudulent practices that led to a multi-crore loss to a public sector bank.