A special CBI court has handed down a three-year rigorous imprisonment to two company proprietors for their involvement in a bank fraud case that led to a loss exceeding Rs 5.5 crore for the State Bank of Hyderabad. Chandrakant Lodha of M/s Chandrakant S. Lodha & Co. and Paresh Thakkar of M/s Thakkar and Sons were convicted in this case, with the judgment pronounced recently.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) initiated the case back on October 9, 2001, against B.R. Dagde, the former Branch Manager of the State Bank of Hyderabad, V.L. Kale, the former Assistant Manager, Lodha, and Thakkar, based on a complaint lodged by the bank. The accused were alleged to have conspired to deceive the bank by depositing high-value cheques without waiting for their clearance by the issuing bank.
As part of the purported criminal conspiracy, Lodha deposited 18 high-value accommodation cheques totaling Rs 6.75 crore, issued by Thakkar from his proprietorship account at Nashik People’s Cooperative Bank. These cheques were processed by the bank, and Kale, with Dagde’s approval, permitted Lodha to withdraw funds by issuing high-value cheques even before the deposited cheques were cleared. This led to a wrongful loss of Rs 5.58 crore to the bank.
Following an investigation, the CBI filed a charge sheet on August 28, 2003, against all four individuals involved. In 2025, the case was moved from the Nashik court to the Pune court due to the reorganization of CBI court jurisdictions in Maharashtra. While Lodha and Thakkar were convicted, Dagde and Kale, the bank officials, were acquitted of all charges.
