Rs 145 crore farmer loan scam: HC Nagpur bench drops some charges against accused

The court studied the case records and noted that the money involved in the scam was taken as bank loans in farmers’ names, and not as public deposits. Because of this, the court removed the charge under Section 3 of The Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, 1999 (MPID Act), a law used to punish people who cheat investors. The court also dropped two other charges related to dealing in stolen property, as these were not mentioned in the police complaint.

The court observed that the offence under Section 3 of the MPID Act was not made out because the transactions involving obtaining money in the names of farmers by way of loans would not amount to ‘deposit’ within the meaning of Section 2(c) of the MPID Act. Furthermore, the court noted that the applicants also do not fit within the definition of “financial establishment” under Section 2(d) of the MPID Act.

According to the police, the scam took place in 184 loan cases across three banks — Corporation Bank, IDBI Bank and Vaishya Bank — in 2018. 158 loan cases were prepared with Corporation Bank, 22 were prepared with IDBI Bank, and 3 were prepared with Vaishya Bank. The accused approached poor farmers and told them that government compensation money for crop damage would be credited to their bank accounts. Trusting them, the farmers gave their Aadhaar cards, photos and other documents. Using these documents, the accused applied for loans in the farmers’ names without their full knowledge. After the banks gave the loan amounts, the money was secretly transferred to the accounts of the accused and their companies.

The farmers came to know about the fraud only when they received loan recovery notices from the banks. The investigation also found that fake crop reports were prepared to show false security for loans. It is alleged that some officials were influenced with money to help in passing these fake reports.

The report against the applicants was lodged by Ramkrishna Nimbulkar, a farmer. The crime was registered based on his report, which alleged that his friends and he were duped by the applicants and co-accused, Roshan Pande and VS Wakalpuddy who were also part of the crime.

Even though some charges were removed, the High Court said there is strong evidence against the accused for many serious crimes. The trial will continue for cheating, criminal conspiracy, breach of trust, forgery, and misuse of computer systems under the IT Act. The total fraud amount is estimated at Rs 145.25 crore. The police investigation is still going on, and further action will be taken based on the trial.

The judgement was given by Justices Urmila Joshi-Phalke, and Nandesh S. Deshpande early this week.