A CBI court in Lucknow has convicted a former employee of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) to 10 years of strict imprisonment in a fraud case that resulted in a loss exceeding Rs 6.37 crore to the company.
Three individuals found guilty in the same case have been awarded sentences of three years in prison each.
According to the reports, the court found Pankaj Saxena, employed as a Higher-Grade Assistant at LIC’s Transgomti Branch in Jankipuram, guilty along with private individuals Prem Shankar Upadhyay, Rekha Upadhyay and Manish Saxena on September 30.
Saxena received a sentence of 10 years of hard labor and a fine of Rs 5 lakh. Prem Shankar Upadhyay, Rekha Upadhyay and Manish Saxena received a three-year rigorous imprisonment sentence along with a fine of Rs 1.25 lakh each.
The CBI filed the case on August 13, 2012, after receiving a complaint from the Chief Manager of LIC’s Transgomti Branch. The inquiry revealed that the accused had plotted to misappropriate LIC funds from February 2006 to August 2010.
The case states that counterfeit payment vouchers and cheques were created in the names of fraudulent and non-existent policyholders. The funds were subsequently misappropriated, resulting in a loss of around Rs 6,37,66,660 to LIC.
Upon completing its inquiry, the CBI submitted a charge sheet against the accused, including those from LIC’s Transgomti Branch, on August 21, 2014.
Following the review of the evidence and the conclusion of the trial, the court declared the four defendants guilty and delivered their sentences on September 30.
In another case, the CBI has arrested a Senior Overseer (Civil) of Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), Umred Area, regarding a bribery investigation. On September 30, a case was filed against the officer stationed at the Gokul Murpar Sub Area of the Umred Area, WCL.
