Father of ex-India cricketer, who made debut with R Ashwin, sentenced to 7 years in embezzlement case

Father of former India cricketer, Naman Ojha, who made his international debut with the legendary Ravichandran Ashwin, has been sentenced to seven years of imprisonment after being found guilty over his involvement in a case of embezzlement. Vinay Ojha was reportedly among the four who have been sentenced for embezzling INR 1.25 crore at the Bank of Maharashtra branch in Betul, Madhya Pradesh, 11 years back. Naman Ojha made his ODI debut for India in June 2010

According to reports, police had filed the case against six individuals, but the verdict was only pronounced by the Multai Additional Sessions Court on Tuesday.

Vinay was the branch manager at the time of the embezzlement. In addition to being jailed, he was also fined INR 7 lakhs. Meanwhile, the mastermind behind the embezzlement, Abhishek Ratnam, was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment and slapped with an INR 10 lakh fine.

“Abhishek Ratnam and Vinay Ojha, through agents, opened fake accounts and embezzled ₹1.25 crore," advocate Vishal Kodale was quoted as saying by The Times of India.

The other two brokers involved, Dhanraj Pawar and Lakhan Hingwe, were each sentenced to seven years of imprisonment and fined INR 7 lakh.

“During the investigation, it was found that the embezzlement was carried out using the passwords of bank officials," Public prosecutor Rajesh Sable was quoted as saying by The Times of India.

Out of the remaining two involved in the matter, bank cashier Dinanath Rathore passed away, while trainee branch manager Nilesh Chatrole was acquitted.

Naman Ojha retired from cricket in 2021

The wicketkeeper-batsman from Madhya Pradesh played four international games for India. He made his debut in the ODI format alongside recently retired Ashwin in Harare against Sri Lanka in June 2010. He played as an opener in the match under Suresh Raina's captaincy and was dismissed for 1. His two T20I appearances came in back-to-back matches on India's tour of Zimbabwe, also under Raina's leadership, where he scored 2 and 10 as an opener. He later made his Test debut under Virat Kohli in 2015 against Sri Lanka in Colombo. He notched up two useful knocks of 21 and 35, while also effecting five dismissals.

Overall, Ojha played in 146 first-class games, scoring 9753 runs, 22 centuries, and 55 half-centuries at 41.67, and inflicting 471 dismissals. In List A cricket, he scored 4278 runs from 143 games and 2972 runs from 182 games in T20s.

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