New Delhi, Apr 7 Madhya Pradesh Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti on Tuesday moved the Delhi High Court challenging his conviction and three-year jail sentence in a cheating case involving the forging of bank records to obtain illegal interest payments between 1998 and 2011.
Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma issued notice to the prosecution on the appeal by Bharti assailing the trial court verdict in the case and listed it for hearing on April 15.
On April 2, the trial court sentenced Bharti, former chairperson of the Zila Sahkari Krishi Aur Grahmin Vikas Bank, to three years' imprisonment in the case.
Underlining that restitution would serve justice better than physical incarceration, the trial court also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Bharti, which would go to the Madhya Pradesh Sahkari Krishi Avem Gramin Vikas Bank Seemit, Bhopal, as the complainant bank had undergone liquidation.
The trial court convicted Bharti on April 1 under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of a valuable security), 468 (forgery for cheating) and 471 (using a forged document as genuine).
Bharti was admitted to bail for a period of 60 days and sentence was suspended by the trial court to enable him to file appeal(s) before the high court in the present matter.
The case, which originated in Madhya Pradesh's Datiya, was transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court in October last year, in light of the claim that efforts were made to intimidate defence witnesses.
In the verdict, the trial court said, "Accused Bharti and accused Raghuvir Sharan Prajapati, along with Savitri Devi (deceased) and possibly other unknown persons, entered into a criminal conspiracy and the object of this conspiracy was to cheat the complainant bank (Zila Sahkari Krishi Aur Grahmin Vikas Bank) by continuing to draw interest at a much higher rate beyond 2011, which was the initial fixed deposit (FD) duration of three years."
Proceedings against Bharti's mother, Savitri, were abated after she died in 2019.
The trial court said that in furtherance of this conspiracy, the bank documents, which are valuable securities, were forged, and the forgery was part of the aim to cheat the bank.
The trial court also observed, "The argument by Bharti that he is politically targeted or that the prosecution is politically motivated is all speculation. He has failed to prove any such political motives or false implications."
According to the prosecution, Bharti's late mother, Savitri, had deposited Rs 10 lakh in the Zila Sahkari Krishi Aur Grahmin Vikas Bank at Datiya on August 24, 1998, as a three-year fixed deposit in the name of a family-run trust for three years at an interest rate of 13.5 per cent per annum.
The prosecution said the accused entered into a conspiracy to extend the high-interest payments beyond the stipulated period by physically tampering with bank records.
Using correction fluid and overwriting, the three-year term was extended by 10 and 15 years, allowing the trust to continue withdrawing annual interest payments till 2011, long after market interest rates had plummeted, claimed the prosecution.
It alleged that the trust, where Bharti was a trustee, illegally withdrew a good amount as interest.
