Court raps senior officials, cops in Rs 11.99L deficit case

Amit Bathla

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, June 13

In its order granting bail to a bank cashier in a Rs11.99-lakh cash-deficit case, a district court questioned the role of senior bank officials in an internal inquiry and that of the police after an FIR was registered in the matter.

The court granted interim bail to Kiran Chauhan, the cashier at Haryana State Co-operative Apex Bank Ltd (HARCO Bank), in an alleged case of causing deficit of funds to the tune of Rs11.99 lakh.

“From the totality of circumstances, it does appear though the shortage of the cash was found on 26.11.2020, yet the bank officials/complainant tried to sweep the same under the carpet by allowing the overdraft limit to the petitioner and then showing the withdrawal of the same and affording an opportunity to the petitioner to make good the deficient amount. The FIR was registered on 28.12.2020 but apparently, no CCTV footage was collected or made available. No recovery is to be made from the petitioner. The petitioner has been alleged of being ‘negligent’ and no dishonest intention has been attributed to her in the entire FIR,” the court said.

“The petitioner is a permanent employee of the bank and there appears to be no likelihood of her absconding. She is also facing a departmental inquiry,’’ Additional Sessions Judge Vani Gopal Sharma observed in the order.

“It is merely on the assumption that the petitioner has been mentioned guilty for cash shortage without any police inquiry or investigation,” Deepak Jindal, counsel for the petitioner had told the court.

The case

Amarjit Kaur, General Manager (Banking), HARCO Bank, in her complaint to the police, said that a sum of Rs 11,99,500 was found short in the cash safe of their bank branch in Sector 6, Panchkula, on November 26.

A DDR was lodged by branch manager Sushil Sangwan at the Sector 7 police post against cashier Kiran Chauhan.

An inquiry was also conducted at the bank level. On the basis of the inquiry report, the management had decided that the shortage of cash was the joint responsibility of the cashier and the branch manager, therefore, both had been grossly negligent.

Later, an FIR was lodged on December 28,2020, under Sections 409 and 120-B of the IPC at the Sector 5 police station.

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