New Delhi, March 15 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a Proclaimed Offender in connection with a 24-year-old case related to bank fraud.

The accused has been identified as Harpal Singh Ahuja, said the probe agency in a statement on Sunday.

The CBI registered a case on April 27, 2001, and after completion of the investigation, a charge sheet was filed on March 19, 2003, against Ahuja and others.

The accused Harpal Singh Ahuja, being the main conspirator, absconded during the trial proceedings in 2014. He was declared a Proclaimed Offender by the Ld. Special Court, CBI, Ghaziabad, on August 2, 2014. An open-dated arrest warrant was also issued by the Court on August 1, 2017.

The CBI, in the statement, said that the trial proceedings against the other accused persons have been concluded, but the trial against accused Harpal Singh Ahuja, warranting his presence before the Court, is still pending.

During 11 years of evading justice, the accused Harpal Singh Ahuja changed his locations between Mumbai and Faridabad. Finally, after strenuous efforts, the accused was traced in Mumbai and was arrested on March 12 in Kalyan, Mumbai.

The arrested accused was brought and produced before the Special Judge, CBI Court, Ghaziabad, from where he has been remanded to judicial custody.

In another case, on March 10, a Special CBI Court in Lucknow sentenced four persons to Rigorous Imprisonment (RI) for eight years in a Rs 6.75 crore bank fraud in Uttar Pradesh and slapped a fine of Rs 70 lakh each on them, an official said.

The Special Court punished Ramji Mishra, Shyamji Mishra, Akhilesh Kumar Mishra and Manishi Pandey, all private persons, said a CBI statement.

The court also held two private companies guilty in the case -- Manishi Enterprises, Varanasi, and Mirzapur Carpets. The court imposed a joint fine of Rs 2 crore on the two firms, it said.

The CBI registered the case on March 13, 2001, against S.N. Verma, the then Branch Manager, Central Bank of India, Mirzapur and others on the allegations that Mirzapur Carpets availed credit facilities from the Bankâ??s Mirzapur Branch in 1996 using forged documents.

/IANS