People have undying, everlasting faith in banking system: HC

DISMISSES BAIL PLEA OF A CLERK ACCUSED OF WITHDRAWING ₹46 LAKH FROM THE ACCOUNT OF A DEAD WOMAN

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has dismissed the bail plea of a bank clerk of a nationalised bank, who is accused of withdrawing Rs 46 lakh from the account of a dead woman in Jind, Haryana. “The general public has an undying and everlasting faith in the banking system and they deposit their hard earned money in banks considering the same as a safe destination. However, when the very employee of a bank starts cheating the customers, the same reminds one of the saying, nothing can be safe when the fence starts eating the crop,” the bench of justice Harnaresh Singh Gill observed dismissing the bail plea.

The FIR in the case was registered on November 17, 2021, for criminal conspiracy and cheating, etc., at the Pillu Khera police station in Jind and he was arrested on May 31, 2022. As per the FIR, one Savitri Devi died in May 2008 and on the day of death, her bank balance stood at Rs 42.55 lakh and since then the account remained inoperative for about 10 years and was categorised dormant by the bank. However, in 2019, the clerk along with a co-accused withdrew Rs 46 lakh using forged documents between May 2019 and September 2020. The petitioner clerk, Sushil Kumar, an employee of the State Bank of India, had claimed that he was innocent and was made a scapegoat by senior officers. He had argued that challan stood presented and he be granted bail. The state police had told the court that the amount was transferred using his official ID and, subsequently, a total of Rs 46 lakh was withdrawn. The court observed that the allegations against Kumar were serious and long custody could not be a ground for bail. “Being the custodian of the public money, the petitioner was ordained with utmost honest conduct, but he has breached the same. If people like the petitioner were enlarged on bail, the same would defeat the very fiduciary relationship. Still further, setting the petitioner free would further set a bad example and would rather give oxygen to the fraudsters,” the bench said dismissing the plea.