High court discharges Central Bank of India’s ex-CMD

AHMEDABAD : In a relief for ex-chairman and managing director of

Central Bank of India

, Srinivas Sridhar, Gujarat high court discharged him from a case over a loan scam worth Rs 436.76 crore.

In 2014, three bank officials were charged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) with corruption, criminal conspiracy and cheating by extending a huge loan to Electrotherm India Ltd to set up a steel plant in Tanzania. They allegedly hurriedly cleared that loan in 2010, without a proper appraisal by the credit department. The two other officials were the CGM (credit) H K Vesuna and executive director Ramnath Pradeep. Three other accused were from the company. The

FIR

was registered after the company failed to repay the loan which was declared an NPA.

By the time the loan was extended, Sridhar had retired from service. After investigation, CBI filed a chargesheet against all six persons. It said Sridhar stood accused of omission by entering a criminal conspiracy with other accused and had cheated the bank to the tune of Rs 436.76 crore.

Sridhar last year unsuccessfully sought a discharge from the case before a special CBI court.

In granting the discharge, Justice Z K Saiyed of the high court observed, “Even from the statements (of witnesses), the prosecution could not establish prima facie the ingredients of conspiracy against the present applicant (Sridhar). No doubt, the statements may create some suspicion against him. But suspicion is not sufficient to hold that there is a reasonable prospect of convicting the applicant of the offence of criminal conspiracy”