Retired insurance company officer sentenced to 5-year jail term

A CBI court sentenced Anand Prakash, 69, to five years for fraudulently withdrawing ₹1.6 crore from Prestige Assurance without board approval.

MUMBAI: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Monday sentenced a 69-year-old managing director of a Nigeria-based Prestige Assurance Limited, a subsidiary of the New India Assurance Company (NIA), to five years of imprisonment, for allegedly approving an internal memo and withdrawing fund worth ₹1.6 crore without the approval of the board of directors.

Retired insurance company officer sentenced to 5-year jail term

The case was registered based on a written complaint filed by the general manager of the New India Assurance with the CBI. As per the FIR, the accused, Anand Prakash, fraudulently and dishonestly approved an internal memo about funds under the head ‘parting gift and pension’ for himself despite knowing he was ineligible for it. He was neither a member of the contributory pension scheme nor had a Retirement Saving account with the pension fund administrator.

The prosecution alleged that the amounts withdrawn was misuse his position as a public servant, with an amount worth ₹1.6 crore fraudulently credited into his account.

The court observed that the offence took place outside India by a person who is a citizen of India, adding that the prosecution has obtained sanction from the Ministry of Home Affairs. The defence submitted that the proper department who provided sanction was the Ministry of Department of Personnel and Training and not the Ministry of Home Affairs. His defence further argued that Prestige Assurance is a Nigerian company that operates under Nigerian law, it is a separate legal entity and cannot be considered a subsidary of an Indian company. “M/s Prestige Assurance is not the Government Company and that the accused was not discharging a public duty,” he added.

The court observed that Prestige Assurance is run by a board of directors with majority of them from NIA which holds 67% stake in Prestige Assurance. Prakash was aware that the parting gift and pension required board sanction and yet he falsely claimed it had been obtained.

The special sessions judge Amit Kharkar said, “What can be gauged from the circumstances of the case, is that the accused, who was the Managing Director, got released various amounts towards the parting gift and pension even though he was not entitled to it without the sanction by the Board of Directors. This would, therefore, be abuse of position by a public servant and adoption of corrupt and illegal means” observed the court.