New Delhi, October 18, 2025: Fifteen years after the loans were first sanctioned, a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Ghaziabad has convicted Manoj Srivastava, the former branch manager of Union Bank of India’s Small Scale Industries (SSI) branch in Noida.
On Friday, the special judge sentenced Srivastava to four years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹30,000 for his role in a series of fraudulent loan approvals made between 2007 and 2009.
The court found that Srivastava had sanctioned loans using forged and fabricated documents, allowing unqualified borrowers to access funds and causing what the CBI described as “significant financial loss” to the bank.
FCRF Launches CCLP Program to Train India’s Next Generation of Cyber Law Practitioners
CBI Investigation and Timeline of the Case
The case was originally registered by the CBI on December 14, 2010, following allegations of criminal conspiracy, cheating, and abuse of official authority. Investigators found that Srivastava had colluded with several others to manipulate loan documentation and approvals during his two-year tenure.
The charge sheet, filed in September 2012, outlined how internal checks and balances were bypassed and false collateral was used to secure loans.
The trial, delayed for years due to procedural and evidentiary complexities, concluded only after Srivastava filed a guilty plea, an uncommon move in white-collar criminal cases.
Guilty Plea and Court’s Decision
Srivastava’s plea was formally submitted earlier this month, with the court accepting it on October 18, immediately pronouncing both conviction and sentence the same day. Legal experts note that such admissions of guilt remain rare, particularly among public officials charged under corruption and fraud statutes.
The judgment emphasized the breach of public trust and the misuse of official position, calling the case an example of “calculated dishonesty within the banking system.”
A Broader Pattern of Financial Misconduct
The conviction arrives amid growing judicial scrutiny of financial malfeasance in India’s public sector institutions. Just weeks earlier, a CBI court in Jabalpur sentenced a former Sub Post Master, Vishal Kumar Ahirwar, to five years in prison for embezzling ₹70 lakh from depositor accounts between 2020 and 2022.
Together, the two cases reflect a widening effort by investigative agencies to bring legacy and contemporary fraud cases to closure. Legal analysts suggest that such outcomes, though delayed, underscore a growing intolerance toward corruption within India’s banking and postal systems — long perceived as insulated bureaucratic domains.
An Ongoing Reckoning With Accountability
While Srivastava’s sentence may not be the most severe, observers say the conviction represents a symbolic affirmation of accountability within the public sector.
The CBI, in a brief statement, said the judgment “reaffirms the principle that public servants are custodians of trust, not privilege.”
For a case that began with forged documents in a small Noida branch and ended with a rare confession in a federal court, the ruling captures both the inertia and the persistence of India’s anti-corruption machinery — slow to move, but still capable of resolution.
