Mohan, who was present in the court, fainted on hearing the order and a doctor had to be called in. Justice Variava stopped dictating the order till Mohan was brought back into the courtroom. "I'am sorry, but it is my job," said Variava sympathetically.

The quantum of punishment to both the accused has been deferred until August 27 in view of a Supreme Court judgement (sections 363 and 248(2) of Criminal Procedure Code) according to which a copy of the order should be provided to the guilty and time should be given to think on what submissions he would like to make on the award of the sentence.

Two other accused in the case,former executive vice-president and former assistant vice-president of Canfina MK Ashok Kumar and N Balasubramaniam respectively, were, however, acquitted by the judge.

This is the second conviction of Hiten Dalal, a notified party. He was first convicted in a civil matter under section 138 of Negotiable Instruments Act in 1993. The matter involved bouncing of four cheques of around Rs 64 crore.

Delivering the judgement in the city on Friday, Justice Variava held Hiten Dalal guilty of `substantive charge' under section 411 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) (receiving a stolen property which was tainted) and section 120 (b) of IPC for criminal conspiracy.

According to the judge, Mohan of Canfina was guilty of substantive offence under section 409 IPC (criminal breach of trust) and sections 13 (1) (C), 13 (1) (D) read with section 13 (2) of Prevention of Corruption Act (taking undue advantage of the post and performing a pecuniary act).

The maximum punishment under sections 411 and 409 of IPC is 10years.

Hiten Dalal purchased the Cancigo units (issued by the Canara Bank Mutual Fund) in September, 1991, out of his funds. The units were, however, bought in the name of Andhra Bank (Rs 11 crore) and Andhra Bank Financial Services (ABFSL -- Rs 22 crore). However, instead of delivering these units (which were also not transferable), Dalal kept them.

In February, 1992, he offered these units to Canfina. As Dalal owed around Rs 25 crore to Canfina, he obtained the amount set off against these units while the excess amount (around Rs 7.99 crore) was paid back to him by the Mumbai office of Canfina.

Subsequent to unearthing of the securities scam, these Cancigo units were traced at the Mumbai office of Canfina. Fearing that the units will land in the hands of the custodian (appointed under the Special Court Act), Canfina decided to file a civil suit in the Special Court claiming ownership of these units.

Following a complaint by Canfina, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a case againstHiten Dalal and the three Canfina officials in 1994. The officials included MK Ashok Kumar (chief dealer in the front office), S Mohan and N Balasubramanium (working in the back office).

While alleging `breach of trust' against its three employees, Canfina has stated that they were liable to be punishable u/s 409 of the IPC as they misused their position and provided deficient units to the company.

CBI counsels VC Gupte and Raja Thakare informed the court that Hiten Dalal had concluded the deal on telephone and handed over the `Cancigo units' to Canfina in Mumbai.

As both Andhra Bank and ABFSL had denied entering into transactions with Canfina, CBI counsels argued that these were obviously fraudulent transactions which Hiten Dalal had entered into with Canfina.

Senior project executive of Canfina, Dhundhiraj Gangadhar Vernekar, star witness, submitted to the court that he initially refused to accept the Cancigo units sent by Hiten Dalal because it was not in his name and also because they werenon-transferable securities.

According to him, Mohan instructed him in February, 1992, to accept the units as payment would be released from Bangalore.

Hiten Dalal had submitted to the court that he had paid for the units and that there was nothing illegal in what he had done. According to Dalal, there was no attempt to cheat as he had given the units openly, and that Canfina accepted them.

Interestingly, Canfina, in its civil suit, had claimed ownership of the units by admitting that these were genuine. The suit was dismissed by justice Variava who stated that the units actually belonged to Dalal. The matter is currently before the Supreme Court.

Legal circles wonder as to what will happen in case the apex court upholds Canfina's contentions in the civil suit.