FIR against Sri Charan bank alleges misappropriation of funds

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Basavanagudi police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) against the Sri Charan Souhardha Sahakara Bank Niyamita, a cooperative Bank, for allegedly dishonouring cheques of a company despite there being sufficient funds in its account.

The FIR was filed by the police after directions were issued by the IV Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court following a private complaint. The complaint was filed on June 10 by Nagaraja RN, on behalf of Ms Apple Spire, a firm from Basavanagudi in which he is a partner. The police have subsequently registered the FIR on the same day.

The complaint alleges that the cooperative bank has misappropriated funds of the company to the tune of Rs1 crore. Apple Spire is engaged in land development, construction and selling of immovable property. They claim to have an account with the Sri Charan Co-operative bank in which they have turnover of Rs.350 crore.

For the past few months the company claims to have experienced delaying tactics by the bank in not realizing and crediting the proceeds of instruments deposited and also the dishonouring of cheques issued and transferred through RTGS and NEFT. The FIR mentions details of four cheques to the tune of Rs.1,49,43,150 that were deposited in the company’s account and cleared by the issuer’s bank but were not credited to the company’s account in the Sri Charan bank.

The company claims that the amount was deposited in their account only after a lot of arguments. The other instances mention RTGS done by the company to other clients that were not honoured. The complaint also claims that Rs.71,69,000 of the company was unauthorizedly debited from the company’s account.

“It is submitted that the accused bank has misused the funds of the complainant company without the knowledge and consent and they have illegally profited by cheating the company and made the company to bow its head before its vendors without any fault of the company. Because of the said reason, the company had lost faith with its customers and vendors in the market,” the private complaint before the Magistrate court says.

Alleging cheating, the complaint stated, “It is submitted that the above said act of the accused bank very clearly demonstrates that the accused bank and its official and office bearers who have directly or indirectly involved and committed the offence under the provisions of 406, 409, 415, 420, 464, 470 and 471 r/w Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.”

Apart from the bank, the FIR mentions the Chief Executive Officer of the bank as accused number two, the Founder Chairman as accused number three, the Secretary as accused number four and the manager as accused number five.

(Crime number 90/2023, Basavanagudi)