HC not satisfied with coop. bank scam probe

The Madras High Court on Monday expressed shock over allegations against officials of the Kancheepuram Central Cooperative Bank of having misappropriated around ₹30 crore and setting the records on fire in order to destroy evidence. Not satisfied with the probe conducted so far by the local police, the court decided to review the entire investigation.

Passing interim orders on a writ appeal filed by a whistle-blower seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the episode, a Division Bench of Justices K.K. Sasidharan and R. Subramanian said: “This appeal is really an eye opener as to how public funds of banks are misappropriated by the employees in collusion with authorities.”

The judges pointed out that the appellant T.K. Babu had initially filed a writ petition in 2013 seeking a CBI probe. Then, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) filed a counter affidavit in support of the writ petitioner and contended that the allegations levelled by him against the cooperative bank appeared to be true. NABARD told the court that ₹9.63 crore was misappropriated by way of offering jewel loans and further large amounts misappropriated through other means.

‘Fire accident staged’

It was also of the view that a fire accident had been staged at the Porur branch of the bank to destroy evidence.

Nevertheless, a single judge of the High Court dismissed the writ petition on the ground that the local police had investigated the matter and hence the present appeal. During the course of appeal, it was brought to the knowledge of the Division Bench that as many as three criminal cases were registered with respect to the incident and action was dropped in one of them.

“The police appear to have investigated the cases registered in connection with the fraudulent acts without showing any sense of seriousness. There was no investigation conducted by the police with regard to the fire accident and as to whether it was the handiwork of the accused to destroy the evidence. We are therefore of the view that all is not well,” the Division Bench said.

It directed the investigating officers to be present in the court on June 12 along with all records connected to the three cases.