Nine convicted in Securities Scam case

New Delhi, Apr 13 (UNI) A special court in Mumbai has convicted nine persons, including the brother of stockbroker late Harshad Mehta and five bank officials, to rigorous imprisonment (RI) ranging from one to 10 years in the multi-crore rupee Securities Scam case of 1992.

The court of Justice S K Shah also slapped fines ranging from Rs one lakh to Rs 5.5 lakh on all nine.

The court awarded 10 years RI and a fine of Rs 5.50 lakh to the then State Bank of India Assistant Manager R Sitaraman.

Three of his colleagues -- Arun Bawdekar, V N Deosthali and M V Shindhay were handed five years RI.

The State Bank of Saurashtra Manager Srinivasan was awarded one year RI with a fine of Rs 1.5 lakh.

Harshad Mehta's brother Sudhir, brokers Pankaj Shah and Atul Parekh were given one year jail term while Hiten Mehta was given three years RI.

Three others -- bankers K Kailasham and A D Padhye besides Ashwin Mehta -- were acquitted due to lack of evidence.

Harshad Mehta, who died a few years ago in jail, and the others convicted were charged with siphoning out nearly Rs 669 crore of State Bank of India in the name of transactions in Government Securities.

The judgement was delivered yesterday.

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