Safe locker operation: Kalaburagi bench of HC quashes criminal case against bank staffers

Justice V Shrishananda noted neither the complaint nor the charge sheet material makes out a case that petitioners are beneficiaries of wrongful gain

The Kalaburagi bench of the high court has quashed the criminal case against two bank staffers observing that no intentions of criminality can be attributed to proceed against them for merely acting on the mandate of the customer.

Justice V Shrishananda has noted that in the case on hand, neither the complaint nor the charge sheet material makes out a case that the petitioners are the beneficiaries of the wrongful gain.

The petitioners are Ramachandra, senior manager, and Gururaj Deshpande, retired chief manager of the Pragati Krishna Grameena Bank in Raichur. One Shridhar R Banare had filed the complaint with the Netaji Nagar police in Raichur on October 1, 2018, alleging that the petitioners had colluded with his elder brother Girish to operate the bank safe locker containing 45 tolas gold rings, another 65 tolas gold ornaments and property documents.

The complainant had claimed that he was jointly operating the bank locker with his mother Kamala. The complainant had approached the bank on May 24, 2016 with a request to operate the locker as his mother Kamala passed away on October 19, 2015. His request was turned down by the managers stating that there had been a modification in the joint operation of the locker through a letter dated November 27, 2013, issued by Kamala replacing his name with his brother Girish’s name.

The managers challenged the complaint and subsequent proceedings, arguing that they had simply adhered to the mandate of instructions issued by Kamala through her letter. The bench noted that the material on record is evident of the fact that the dispute is only between the two brothers and for which the managers have been unnecessarily arraigned as additional accused by making a vague allegation of collusion.

"To make out a case under Section 420 of IPC, wrongful loss occurred to the complainant and wrongful gain made by the accused persons is a sine qua non. In the case on hand, petitioners have simply adhered to the mandate issued by the account holder Smt Kamala on Nov 27, 2013, as dutiful bank officials," the court said.

The bench further said that the case against the complainant’s brother would continue, as there are allegations of misuse of the articles found in the safe locker including the documents pertaining to the property left behind by the parents.