The Appellate Court in February had overruled the District Court´s decision and directed the police to arrest the four, who were accused of helping Santosh Poudel to swindle money from different banks and using forged land ownership documents. [break]
Keshab Narayan Pradhan, the then branch manager of Rastriya Banijya Bank (RBB), Gangadhar Poudel, assistant manager of the bank, and Surya Prasad Lamsal, credit chief of the bank, were then imprisoned on charges of colluding with Poudel, who was arrested in June 2011 for using fake land ownership certificates to take loans. Along with bankers, Engineer Saroj Man Palikhe, who had valuated the collateral, was also imprisoned at that time.
However, on Wednesday, the joint bench of justices Ramkumar Prasad Shah and Prakash Wasti stated that the verdict issued by the Appellate Court was not per the law and hence annulled. The final verdict states that the officials had not harbored any ill-intentions and the loan was granted as part of their responsibility.
Poudel had managed to swindle the RBB of Rs 2.5 million allegedly in connivance with the bank staff and the engineer by overvaluing the 3080.25 sq feet land in Chhinedanda - 19 Pokhara.
Godhar Consultancy in Sept 2009 had evaluated the land pawned as collateral at Rs 5.53 million. Based on this, RBB had extended a loan of Rs 2.5 million to Poudel. However, investigations later revealed that Poudel had already pledged the land as collateral at Garima Development Bank.
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