15 Years On, Ghaziabad Court Charges 3 PNB Officials in Loan Fraud Case Fifteen years after the initial loan sanctioning, a special court in Ghaziabad has framed charges against three Punjab National Bank (PNB) officials for alleged fraud, criminal conspiracy, and misuse of public office. The case involves loans totaling over Rs 5 crore sanctioned in 2011 to a couple, Sanjeev Dixit and Sheetal Sharma, who are also named as co-accused. The court, presided over by Special CBI Judge Anand Prakash Singh, charged the three officials—Rajendra Singh Chauhan, Raghavendra Swaroop Bhatnagar, and Manoj Kumar—under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act. The case centers on two loan applications processed by the PNB Nehru Nagar branch. Sanjeev Dixit submitted a request for a cash credit (CC) limit of Rs 3.5 crore on May 9, 2011. The loan was sanctioned on May 25 after the bank mortgaged his property in New Delhi, C-193, Vivek Vihar. However, investigators found that Dixit had submitted two forged sale deeds to secure the loan. The bank officials, including Chauhan (then chief manager-cum-sanctioning officer), Bhatnagar (deputy manager/processing officer), and Kumar (manager/recommending officer), allegedly failed to conduct proper due diligence. As a result, Rs 1,97,48,800 was transferred from the CC account to M/s Jagdamba Crane Services, registered in the name of Radheshyam Sharma, who is the uncle of Sheetal Sharma, Dixit’s wife. The funds were used to purchase a property in Sector 5, Vasundhara, Ghaziabad. Sheetal Sharma, also a co-accused, submitted a separate loan application on June 19, 2011, seeking a Rs 2 crore credit limit. The bank sanctioned the loan after mortgaging her property in Vasundhara, despite the sale deed being forged.#ghaziabad #pnb #sanjeev_dixit #sheetal_sharma #cbi_judge_anand_prakash_singh
