Mumbai, Feb 24 (IANS): A Mumbai court has awarded different jail terms to four persons, including an ex-manager of Bank of India (BoI), for cheating the bank to the tune of Rs 98 lakh.

The Special Judge sentenced Abid Ali Gulam Vohra, the ex-manager of Bank of India's Jacob Circle branch, to four years' rigorous imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 3.5 lakh.

Apart from Vohra, three private persons -- Ashok Leharchand Bhansali, Sadiq Sayyad Mir Patel and Rizwan Sayyad Mir Patel -- were also awarded jail term.

While Bhansali has been awarded five years' jail term along with a fine of Rs 3.35 crore, Sadiq and Rizwan have been sent to jail for three years each, besides being slapped a fine of Rs 32.5 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh, respectively.

The CBI had registered a case in 1998 against the four accused based on a complaint lodged by the bank. It was alleged that the accused cheated the bank to the tune of Rs 98.28 lakh.

The accused had opened several accounts in the bank, where cheques were deposited and the same were sent to clearing. In the normal course, a customer was permitted to draw the amount only after a cheque so presented was cleared.

"But the branch was permitted drawing the amount against uncleared effects immediately and thereafter the instruments were sent for clearing. Cheques so deposited in these accounts were purely of accommodative nature as invariably all these cheques were returned unpaid by the drawee bank.

"The branch was expected to debit the account when the cheques were so returned. To make provisions for posting of returned cheques, the said customers deposited further cheques which again were sent to clearing," said a CBI official.

Every day, the customers were depositing cheques in the various accounts to protect the returned cheques. As such, the accounts did not show TOD position and hence it did not get reflected in the TOD statements submitted by the branch to the controlling office. These fraudulent transactions resulted in the loss of Rs. 98.28 lakh.