Former executive director of PUNWIRE, others to get 2 years in jail

The CBI had registered the case on October 21, 2002, on the directions of the Supreme Court on the allegations of large-scale embezzlement of funds in PUNWIRE. Accordingly, the CBI took over 20 FIRs of Mohali police station for investigation.

The present case was a reproduction of one FIR (No. 236/2001), earlier registered at Mohali police station. It was alleged in the said
FIR that PUNWIRE had gone into liquidation because of large-scale cheating and embezzlement of funds of the company by its own officials and also because of mismanagement in the company.

It was alleged that Ved Prakash, who was authorised to issue cheques up to the limit of Rs 2 lakh only, issued cheques of much higher amount to the creditors of the company amounting to around Rs 132.56 crore.

The FIR alleged that the accused were fully aware of the precarious financial condition of the company at the time of issuing cheques and the issuance of such cheques put the company under a huge financial liability and multifarious litigation because of the bouncing of cheques. It was also alleged that the cheques beyond Rs 2 lakh were unauthorised and that the company was in a total financial crisis.

After investigation, a chargesheet was filed on August 29, 2008 and charges were framed on November 18, 2010.