A financial fraud case involving nine older people in Mumbai would leave many shell-shocked since we usually don’t see senior citizens implicated in such crimes or having such a mindset. It is usually the other way around, where stories of them getting defrauded are plenty. We see a case of 9 Senior Citizens Convicted For Bank Fraud Of Rs 13.5 Crore In Mumbai. A Mumbai magistrate court has sentenced all the surviving accused to three years of jail terms for financial fraud. Two of them have died during the course of the trial.

Times of India reported that one of the accused is a 61-year-old managing director of Modern Denim Ltd, a denim manufacturing company, sentenced to three years of simple imprisonment.  

Between 1997 and 2000, these “bad boys” defrauded the Bank of Baroda and Federal Bank of Rs 13.5 crore. Though the banks haven’t lodged a first information report (FIR) with the police in the case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) swung into action upon receiving information about the fraud. In a follow-up, CBI lodged the FIR on June 30, 2004, four years after the incident. 

The report citing the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Jaywant C Yadav, said, “The prosecution was initiated on the basis of information received by CBI, and it would be entitled to do so in regard to its statutory powers contained in the Delhi Special Police Act since the money involved in the financial fraud is public money belonging to the public sector banks. Therefore, merely the banks have not filed any complaint and/or lodged a FIR is no ground to hold that there is no cheating, forgery, (or) fraud committed by the accused.”

According to the CBI’s special public prosecutor, the total fraud amount was more than Rs 100 crore, but they prayed the banks to settle the case for Rs 25 crore.  

However, during the pendency of the trial, the court rejected the defence’s request for a one-time payment of Rs 25 crore to one of the banks to absolve them from criminal liability. 

The court observed that the payment would not absolve them from criminal liability since it was a criminal conspiracy. The accused forged the documents to get credit from the banks. 

However, since the trial started, two of the accused, the chairman and the vice president of a company, have died while one of the convicts is absconding.  

The fraud charges were labeled against the accused because of the proven criminal liability. The 86-page judgment underscores that cheating public money by forgery and misusing the funds to cover other liabilities is intentional financial misconduct.