New Delhi, May 4 (PTI) A Delhi court on Monday sentenced three former officials of a company to four years imprisonment for defrauding the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), saying undue sympathy would harm the justice delivery system.
Special Judge Sudhanshu Kaushik was hearing arguments on sentencing after the private company’s ex-officials, Sumit Chaturvedi (64), Amit Chaturvedi (67) and Parvin Juneja (66), were convicted on April 24 for the offences of cheating, criminal conspiracy and using a forged document.
Special Judge Sudhanshu Kaushik said, “It stands proved that convicts hatched a criminal conspiracy (in 2009) to defraud Industrial Development Bank of India and, acting in furtherance of the said conspiracy, got sanctioned and disbursed a loan of Rs 9.75 crores on the basis of forged documents and the funds so obtained were diverted for a purpose other than for which the loan was sanctioned.” The judge underlined that the inadequacy of the sentence could lead to suffering of the victim and the community at large.
He said, “I am of the considered opinion that undue sympathy to impose an inadequate sentence would do more harm to the justice delivery system, undermine the public confidence in the efficacy of law…” “There is a growing tendency in society that an accused hardly gets caught, and in case he gets caught, he hardly gets punished, and in case he gets punished, he gets away with a minor punishment.” Judge Kaushik said that this tendency needed to be curbed to give a strong signal to society that no leniency would be observed, in case a person had been convicted after a full-blown trial.
He said the convicts entered into a criminal conspiracy, cheated the bank and diverted the public money, and besides, they had been convicted in another matter of cheating Rs 15 crore by following a similar modus operandi.
“Deterrence is one of the key factors that is to be considered while awarding punishment. In the present circumstances, no case is made out for releasing the convicts on probation,” the judge said.
He sentenced the three convicts to four years of simple imprisonment and a fine of Rs one lakh for the offences of cheating and criminal conspiracy. PTI MNR MNR RT RT
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