Ahmedabad: A special CBI court on Saturday sentenced a former branch manager of Indian Overseas Bank, Himatnagar, Neeraj Kumar Jain, along with a borrower named Ketan Patel, to three years’ rigorous imprisonment in connection with a bank fraud. Besides the jail term, the court has imposed a fine of a total of Rs 1.12 crore on the accused persons.The CBI said in a media statement that it filed an FIR in May 2024 against Jain and 15 others for allegedly defrauding a bank of Rs 2.6 crore. According to the agency, Jain, along with Ketan, Nilesh Patel and 13 other borrowers, used forged documents to obtain funds for greenhouse projects between Oct 2012 and Sep 2013.A CBI probe revealed that Jain sanctioned and disbursed 14 agricultural term loans for the greenhouse projects. Borrowers had applied for the loans in the name of their relatives and acquaintances and got sanctioned Rs 19 lakh for each of the loans. The agency filed a chargesheet against Jain and three others — Ketan, Nilesh and Avinash Patel.After the trial, CBI court found Jain and Ketan guilty of the fraud and sentenced them. The court did not find substantial evidence against Avinash, and Nilesh has been absconding.
