Bank fraud: HC denies relief to staff

Madurai: The Madras high court dismissed the plea of a co-operative bank employee seeking to quash trial court proceedings against him for recommending loans to ineligible people who had already defrauded the bank by obtaining loans in 2014.

Justice G Jayachandran observed that the circular issued by the cooperative society does not prohibit from taking action against erring officials, as it is only suggestive in nature.

The judge observed that when dereliction of duty is not tainted with criminal intention, recovery proceedings alone is sufficient. “This is a clear case of fabrication of records and thereby, the petitioner and the other accused have caused loss to the society. The role of the petitioner in granting loan and tampering records has been spoken by the witnesses in their statements,” noted the judge.

The petitioner A Manivel was working as the circle supervisor of Trichy district central cooperative bank and his duty was to verify loan applications received by the primary agricultural cooperative society and forward the same to the district central cooperative bank. tnn