Conspiracy to defraud bank; HC refuses to quash case against actress

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru:

The High Court of Karnataka has refused to quash a criminal case against actress Sindhu Menon aka Sindhu Tarayil Kathikeyan stating that whether she was a co-conspirator along with her brother to defraud a bank has to come out of the investigation.

“Whether the petitioner was a co-conspirator along with the other accused to defraud the bank or not, is a matter of investigation and it is not appropriate to quash the proceedings against the petitioner at this stage itself,” Justice MI Arun said in his judgment recently.

The actress is now settled in the United Kingdom. The 35-year-old actress is a co-accused in a criminal case against the Bank of Baroda. Manoj K Varma, her brother, is said to have borrowed a loan of Rs.36,78,000 to purchase a car.

However, he did not hypothecate the car nor repaid the loan. The Bank later claimed that forged documents had been submitted to obtain the loan and a complaint was filed on February 10, 2018 in the RMC Yard Police Station. The complaint states that the funds borrowed from the bank by Varma were diverted to the accounts of his business partner Nagashree Shivanna.

Sindhu Menon is accused of having provided the margin money in the account of her brother “with a view to deceive the Bank”. The business activity of Sudha Rajashekar Varma, another sister of Varma, was allegedly used to create various current accounts where the funds were diverted. Menon approached the HC of Karnataka with a petition seeking to quash the case against her.

She claimed that she had given a hand loan to her brother, and after the loan was sanctioned by the bank, he deposited Rs10,00,000 in her account. Therefore, she was not part of any offence. The government’s advocate argued that “whether she is a co-conspirator along with the other accused to defraud the bank is a matter of investigation, and it may not be appropriate for the court to interfere at this stage itself,” and sought the dismissal of her petition.

“Admittedly, the petitioner has given certain funds to accused No.1 and after the loan was procured, a portion of the amount has been diverted to the account of the petitionActress Sindhu Menon er,” the HC noted dismissing her petition.