Man sentenced to 5-yr imprisonment for cheating three with fictitious site allotment

Bengaluru: A city court has convicted a Bengaluru man for duping three persons of Rs 42 lakh by giving them fictitious BDA sites’ allotment letters under the discretionary quota.

The accused, John Michael, a resident of Bengaluru’s Thimmanahalli, TC Palya, had posed as the personal secretary of the then Chief Minister N Dharam Singh.

Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge Santhosh Gajanan Bhat sentenced Michael to undergo rigorous imprisonment (RI) for five years, besides imposing a fine of Rs 42 lakh for cheating.

The court sentenced him to undergo five years’ RI and slapped a penalty of Rs 1 lakh for forgery; three years’ jail term with a fine of Rs 1 lakh for cheating by impersonation; and two years’ simple imprisonment with a fine of Rs 10,000 for destruction of evidence.

The sentences are ordered to run concurrently.

The prosecution case was that in 2006, Michael befriended one N Sreedharan and took Rs 11,13,004 from him by promising allotment of a BDA site.

Similarly, he befriended Tapan Bhandari through Sreedharan and took Rs 30,82,032 from him and his wife Chanda Bhandari.

Subsequently, Michael handed allotment letters and sale deeds to Sreedharan and the Bhandari couple.

It was only in 2009-10 that they realised that all the documents were fake.

‘White-collared offence’

The court considered the crime committed by the accused as a white-collared offence.

“Under the pretext of providing allotment of sites by competent authorities, people like the accused are inducing the general public by impersonating themselves to be connected closely to those who are in power.

“The said aspect is required to be determined and under the circumstances, when the evidence of prosecution is examined in its entirety, would indicate an act being committed by the accused and hence, the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt,” the court said.

Compensation to victims 

The court also ordered compensation to the victims. Out of the fine amount, Rs 12 lakh has been ordered to be given to Sreedharan, while Rs 26 lakh and Rs 6 lakh to Tapan and Chanda, respectively. The remaining amount has been ordered to be forfeited to the state government.