A Jaipur courtroom delivered poetic justice on February 26, 2026, when ACJM (SPE Cases) found Alok Agarwal guilty in a notorious 1997 bank fraud orchestrated against Vijaya Bank. The sentence—seven years of hard labor and Rs 5 lakh fine—caps a relentless CBI investigation into a Rs 5 crore heist that exposed deep rot in lending practices.
Triggered by a whistleblower tip on November 21, 1997, the CBI unraveled a web of deceit. Inside players like branch manager S.R. Lalwani and M.R. Shetty colluded with outsiders S.S. Sharma and S.M. Agarwal of a private firm. They fabricated transactions with bogus companies, securing loans on air and laundering proceeds via employee withdrawals into hard cash.
The exact haul stood at Rs 4,99,71,944, mirroring the bank’s losses. Legal proceedings kicked off with a 2001 charge sheet against S.M. and Arun Agarwal, adding Alok in a 2002 supplement. Twists included S.M.’s death prompting case closure in 2016 and Arun’s acquittal on evidentiary grounds.
Undeterred, CBI prosecutors built an airtight case against Alok, leading to his conviction. This ruling not only punishes the guilty but signals to financial institutions: vigilance pays off. In an era of digital banking threats, it reminds that old-school scams too face modern reckoning, bolstering faith in judicial machinery.