Kochi: A Special CBI Court in Kochi on Wednesday convicted four persons and acquitted three others, including two former officials of the erstwhile State Bank of Travancore (SBT), in a nearly two-decade-old loan fraud case involving ₹96.80 lakh obtained by mortgaging protected government forest land using forged documents.

The Special CBI Court, presided over by Judge Sabarinathan P, convicted KA Sebastian (68), PT Augustine (63), Joby Chacko (56) and K Jayaprakash (51) for fraudulently securing credit facilities worth ₹96 lakh from the Aluva branch of SBT in 2005.

The court sentenced all four accused persons to two years’ imprisonment. Sebastian and Jayaprakash were convicted on charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy and sentenced to two years’ simple imprisonment each along with a fine of ₹50,000 each. Augustine and Joby Chacko were convicted on charges of forgery and impersonation and sentenced to prison terms of up to two years besides being fined ₹1.70 lakh each.

Former SBT Chief Manager T Chandran, former Manager (Agriculture) Mani T Cherian and co-accused Rajesh VB were acquitted of all charges. Proceedings against Johny Chacko and bank-panel valuator Santhosh Kumar, who later turned approver, were abated following their deaths during the trial.

According to the prosecution, the accused forged sale deeds relating to 34 acres of ecologically fragile government forest land in Karuvarakundu village in Nilambur, Malappuram district. They allegedly created fake ownership documents, impersonated fictitious landowners and fraudulently mortgaged the protected forest land to obtain loans worth ₹96 lakh from the Aluva branch of SBT.

Explaining the case, CBI Special Public Prosecutor M Navas said the accused fabricated title deeds to claim ownership over the forest land and used them to secure the bank loan.

“On 34 acres of forest land in Nilambur’s Karuvarakundu village, the accused created forged sale deeds claiming ownership. They mortgaged this land with SBT and drew ₹96 lakh in 2005. Not a single rupee was repaid, except for a mere ₹85,000. When the bank later attempted to attach the property to recover the dues, they discovered that the land did not exist on private records and it was entirely protected government forest land,” he said.

The prosecution said Joby Chacko, Johny Chacko and PT Augustine impersonated landowners and executed forged sale deeds in favour of loan borrowers K Jayaprakash and KA Sebastian. They also opened fake bank accounts through which the loan proceeds were allegedly siphoned off.

Although the CBI had initially arraigned the two bank officials as accused on suspicion of criminal conspiracy, the court acquitted them after finding insufficient evidence of collusion.

Commenting on the acquittal, Navas said that during the trial the court found that the officials had been misled.

“In our investigation, the bank officials were made accused because that was necessary to establish the charge structure. However, during the trial, evidence revealed that the bank officials were taken to and shown a completely different piece of land instead of the actual forest land. They acted on that belief. The court appears to have taken a liberal view considering that context. Once we receive the full judgment, we will study it and consider whether to file an appeal,” he said.

Expressing satisfaction over the outcome, Navas said, “We are happy with the verdict. Using strong scientific evidence, we successfully secured convictions for four of the key accused.”