A former manager of Punjab National Bank, Dipak Kumar Kohli (66) was handed a three-year jail term on Friday by a special CBI court for a loan scam of over Rs 25 lakh.

Ironically, Kohli has already spent 14 years in jail for the crime.

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Kohli stood a free man after the court sentence but the punishment served by him is far greater than the crime. Maximum provision of jail term in this case is 10 years and Kohli has served 14 years.

Kohli had to remain in jail despite bail granted to him by Gujarat high court in 2013.

He was arrested in October 2002 for disbursement of Rs 3.5 crore towards loan to some 40 people without verifying land records. Question was raised on authenticity of documents and Kohli was booked in 70 different cases for cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.

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Out of 70 FIRs, the Navrangpura police did not file chargesheet in six cases, in which he was granted default bail. By August 2013, Kohli got bail in 30 cases and he was acquitted in one case.

For remaining 39 cases, the trial began after 2014. The delay was caused in trail because the person, who had filed the complaints, did not turn up before the court for cross examination as he had left the country.

Because of delay in trial, Kohli filed bail applications in the high court in 2013 and Justice AJ Desai ordered to release him forthwith on condition of furnishing bail bond of Rs 5,000 in each of the 39 offences.

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The court had ordered for his release citing Kohli had remained behind bars for more than a decade, more time than the maximum provision for sentencing in such cases.

Kohli furnished bond in these 39 cases but still could not step out of jail as papers of six cases, in which cops did not file chargesheet in time and he got default bail, could not be traced in court and in police station as well.