HC refuses to quash case against bank

HYDERABAD:  Justice KC Bhanu of the high court has refused to quash criminal proceedings against Kotak Mahindra Bank by Punjagutta police here, saying that prima facie an offence of misappropriation of Rs 15 lakh had been made out against bank officials.Kotak Mahindra Bank, represented by its vice-chairman and managing director and two others, filed a petition in the High Court seeking a stay of all further proceedings, including their arrest, in a criminal case registered by the police on a lower court’s directive. The lower court’s directive followed a complaint lodged by Khaja Azeemuddin, a city resident, alleging that he had been cheated by the bank.Khaja said in his complainant that he had paid Rs 15 lakh by a banker’s cheque in January 2009 to the bank as earnest money deposit (EMD) to purchase a piece of land at Vijayawada which was put on sale by the bank. The bank cashed the cheque without informing him whether his offer to buy the land was accepted or not or when he had to pay the balance amount. When bank officials refused to meet him, he approached the lower court. The bank filed a petition before the HC seeking quashing of investigation into the case.While dismissing the bank’s plea, the judge, in his order, made it clear there were no grounds to quash the proceedings. Having accepted the pay order amount of ` 15 lakh they ought to have addressed a letter to the complainant to pay the remaining amount on a particular date. No such communication was made by the bank. So, the way in which the bank officials cashed the amount and later allegedly transferred that to the account of another was nothing but misappropriation of the amount, he noted.