Bank official sentenced to 3-yr jail in DA case in Pune

New Delhi: A 46-year-old official of a nationalised bank has been sentenced to three years in jail by a Delhi court for possessing disproportionate assets (DA) of over Rs 15 lakh.

Special CBI Judge RP Pandey held Ravi Kumar Bharti, who was working as a Deputy Manager in Punjab National Bank, guilty of criminal misconduct and possessing assets more than his legal income under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The court imposed a fine of Rs three lakh on him and also ordered that an amount of Rs 15,75,284, by which the assets of the convict have been found in excess, be forfeited. "If any amounts of accused are lying seized/deposited with CBI or with the court, the forfeited amount be first adjusted from those deposits and the remaining balance, if any, to be recovered by attachment/sale of properties of assets, unless the same is deposited by him within 60 days of this order," it said. The court, however, granted him bail on furnishing of a personal bond of Rs 50,000 with one surety of like amount for a month to enable him to file appeal against this judgement before the superior court. Defence counsel had sought a lenient view submitting that the convict was suffering from cancer of tongue and throat and has to support his wife and two minor children. He also said that Bharti`s wife was suffering from blood cancer. According to the CBI, an FIR was registered on July 20, 2010, on the complaint of its inspector that during a search at Bharti`s house in another case, he had found incriminating documents. After scrutinising them, the inspector had found that Bharti, while working as deputy manager in the bank, was in possession of assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.