Tirupur, Jul 18: When over a billion Indians are still eagerly waiting for Rs 15 lakh promised by Bharatiya Janata Party during 2014 Lok Sabha poll campaign, a couple in Tirupur is now jailed for spending Rs 40 lakh it had received from the local government.
It all began in 2012, when Rs 40 lakh was mistakenly credited to the bank account of Tirupur-based LIC agent V Gunasekaran.
Without trying to find out how the amount landed in the account, Gunasekaran and his wife Radha went on a spending spree, bought a property and splurged on their daughter’s wedding. Eventually, the long arm of the law caught up with them.
A trial court here on Monday sentenced the couple to three years imprisonment for spending the cash which was credited to one of their accounts by mistake.
The amount sanctioned under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme and the MLA Local Area Development Scheme was meant for civil work to be taken up by the Public Works Department. The PWD authorities had mentioned the account number of Gunasekaran instead of the PWD executive engineer when they took three demand drafts.
According to the prosecution, Gunasekaran, of Rakkiyapalayam, had a savings account in the Tirupur main branch of Corporation Bank, where the EE too had an account. Though the amount was transferred to Gunasekaran’s account, the PWD authorities were not aware of it for eight months. When they realised that the funds had not reached their account, they approached Corporation bank officials who said the money had been credited to the account mentioned in the DD.
When the bank officials checked the account balance of Gunasekaran they found that the entire sum had been withdrawn within days of it being credited.
Senior officials of Corporation bank requested Gunasekaran to re-deposit the money in his account so that the bank could retrieve it. But he failed to do so.
In 2015, assistant general manager Narasimha Giri lodged a complaint with Tirupur city’s Central Crime Branch (CCB) police against Gunasekaran.
CCB registered a case against Gunasekaran and Radha under various Sections, including 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy).
The couple obtained anticipatory bail in the case, and were pursuing it before the Tirupur judicial magistrate court II. "Gunasekaran gave an undertaking to the bank that he would return the cash, but did not honour the assurance despite repeated requests. So, it was a clear case of misappropriation, said additional public prosecutor Ibrahim Raja.
As the prosecution proved the case, JM court II judge D Thirunavukkarasu ordered them to undergo three years imprisonment. The CCB arrested the couple who were sent to the Coimbatore central prison.
Comments
Add new comment