Special Court, CBI, Ghaziabad: The Court of Shivank Singh, Special Judicial Magistrate (CBI), issued summons against the builder for the alleged unapproved imaginary construction and the fraud thereafter, the two bogus allottees for cheating the bank, and the two Punjab National Bank (Bank) officials for turning a blind eye, under relevant sections.
In the pertinent ‘infamous case’, the construction company, Shri Balaji Hi-Tech Constructions Pvt. Ltd., had constructed multi-storey residential flats in Ghaziabad. The builder (also the Director) with the allottees cheated the bank, by issuing more than one allotment letter for the same flat to different individuals and issued allotment letters for the non-existent flats on the 16th floor of the building. The housing loan was secured in name of the purported allottees. The bogus allottees, then secured a housing loan for the same ‘imaginary house’. Interestingly, this was an alleged criminal conspiracy where not only the builder, the allottees but very clearly the Bank officials were also involved.
The Court very categorically acknowledged and took cognizance of each of the issues and individuals involved at various stages of the fraud. Primarily, the Court took note of the fact that the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) approved only one ground floor and 14 upper floors, indicating that the imaginary house was not even approved. Further, the role of the ‘sanctioners’ (Bank Officials) was very prominently highlighted, as the two housing loan proposals of the bogus allottees were processed and recommended by the then Manager and Senior Manager of the Bank. What is captivating is that, “…sanction for prosecution u/s 19 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 was sought from the competent authority in PNB but the same was declined…”. Moving in the same direction, the Court further made a remark, “…The act of processing, recommending and sanctioning the housing loans by the bank officials on non-existent flats is an act which is without any imprimatur…”. While taking cognizance, the Court in the operative part of the order opined that, “no sanction under section 197 CrPC is required for the offences of IPC against them as both of them are not the officials which are removable by the sanction of Government as required by the provision of Section 197 CrPC. K. Ch. Prasad v. J. Vanalatha Devi, (1987) 2 SCC 52 and S.K. Miglani v. NCT of Delhi in Criminal Appeal No. 744 of 2019 were relied on.
The Court took note of the “lapses shown by the Bank Officials” and refused to believe that the fraud could otherwise be committed successfully, had they not turned a blind eye to the verification process while sanctioning. Therefore, the Builder and the two bogus allottees were summoned for the offences under Sections 120B read with 420,467,468,471 of the Penal Code as well as substantive offences under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471 of the Penal Code. And the ‘sanctioners’ or the Bank officials under Section 120B read with 420, 467, 468, 471 Penal Code and for offences under Section 409 of the Penal Code.[CBI v. Harpreet Singh Saigal, Cri. Misc. Cases/0000352/2021, decided on 15-03-2021]
