Lucknow, Nov 3 (IANS): A special court in Lucknow has convicted a 36-year-old man in a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

Abhishek Srivastava, 36, was given a three-year jail term for duping several banks by taking loans on fake documents.

He is accused of cheating multiple banks and securing loans on forged documents to the tune of Rs 2.87 crore.

This also happens to be the first case of conviction in a PMLA case in Uttar Pradesh.

Special Judge, (Money Laundering Act), Ajay Vikram Singh, on Thursday pronounced the sentence for Abhishek Srivastava a.k.a. Rishi Saxena. The court also imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh.

The court has also ordered to acquire the properties worth Rs 2.87 crore attached by ED in favour of the central government as a punishment.

Special public prosecutor, ED, Kuldeep Srivastava, apprised the court that Srivastava is the mastermind of the gang that has defrauded several banks to the tune of crores of rupees.

The ED said that the conviction of Srivastava and his gang members was the first from the state and that his other members, who include Vishal Sharma a.k.a. Shishir Verma and Naeem Khan -- both of whom were also sentenced to three years' imprisonment each and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each.

The ED had first registered a case of money laundering on March 31, 2010 and during probe it was found that the accused Srivastava and his gang members had defrauded Bank of India’s branch in Kakori, Allahabad Bank branches in Barra, Swaroop Nagar in Kanpur Nagar and Hussainganj branch of Lucknow to a total of Rs 2.87 crore on fake documents.

The ED had filed a charge sheet in the court on November 27, 2018. The framing of charges in the case began on September 21, 2022.