Railway cheque forgery: CBI court hands 3-year sentence to four

LUCKNOW: A special CBI court on Tuesday sentenced four persons to three years in jail in connection with a case related to forgery of railway cheques worth Rs 21.85 crore in Gorakhpur.Those sentenced were Rakesh Kumar Mishra (mastermind), Bharat Yadav, Anil Mandal, and Rajesh Kumar Singh. One accused Chandrashekhar Choudhary was acquitted.Special Judge, CBI IV, Rajneesh Mohan Verma, convicted them on charges of cheating, criminal conspiracy, and forgery.The case was registered on Oct 31, 2012, under various sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act (PC Act), and forgery of railway cheques.Rakesh, in connivance with others, allegedly scanned original cheques of NER Gorakhpur and deposited the fake ones in the State Bank of India's main branch in Gorakhpur.The bank credited nearly Rs 3 crore in one account while the remaining amount could not be transferred due to technical issues.The CBI filed a chargesheet against the accused on November 12, 2013, and charges were framed on September 15, 2014. During the trial, 65 witnesses were examined, and the case was listed for judgment on July 30, 2024.