Kochi | A court here has convicted four people and acquitted three others in connection with a 2006 bank loan fraud case in which government forest land was fraudulently mortgaged to obtain bank loans.

CBI court Special Judge Sabarinathan P on Wednesday sentenced K A Sebastian (68), P T Augustine (63), Joby Chacko (56) and K Jayaprakash (51) to two years of imprisonment each for fraudulently securing credit facilities to the tune of Rs 96.80 lakh from the State Branch of Travancore (SBT), Aluva in 2006.

The court acquitted former SBT Chief Manager T Chandran, former Manager (Agriculture) Mani T Cherian and Rajesh V B of all charges.

Proceedings against another accused, Johny Chacko, were abated following his death during the trial.

According to the prosecution, the accused forged sale deeds relating to 34 acres of ecologically fragile government forest land in Karuvarakundu village in Malappuram district and falsely claimed ownership to obtain loans worth Rs 96.80 lakh from the Aluva branch of SBT.

The CBI alleged that Joby Chacko, Johny Chacko and P T Augustine impersonated fictitious landowners to execute forged sale deeds in favour of K Jayaprakash and opened fake bank accounts to siphon off the loan proceeds.

Sebastian and Jayaprakash were convicted for cheating and criminal conspiracy and sentenced to two years of simple imprisonment each besides being fined Rs 50,000 each.

Augustine and Joby Chacko were convicted on charges including forgery and impersonation.

They were sentenced to prison terms of up to two years and fined Rs 1.70 lakh each.

Advocate M Navas appeared for CBI.

Lawyers M Sunilkumar, Thomas Abraham, Udhaya Bhanu CP and Dhinesh Mathew appeared for the acquitted persons.