Bail refused to bank exec booked for misappropriating ₹67L from customer’s account

A relationship manager of a private bank in Mumbai has had her bail plea rejected after allegedly withdrawing ₹67 lakh from a customer's account without consent. The court emphasized the seriousness of the allegations and the impact of the breach of trust by a bank employee. The accused faces charges of criminal breach of trust and cheating.

MUMBAI: The sessions court on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of a 26-year-old relationship manager of a private bank booked for allegedly withdrawing ₹67 lakh from the account of a bank customer. The court rejected the bail plea on the ground that the allegations were serious in nature.

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While rejecting the bail plea of Reshma Mandal, additional sessions judge SN Patil emphasised the impact of criminal breach of trust by a public servant or by a banker, merchant or agent. The court said the accused is a servant of the bank who took advantage of the age of the customer and transferred huge amounts of money for personal use without the customer’s consent.

The accused faced charges for committing an offence punishable under sections 409 (Criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent) and 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code 1860, for allegedly transferring ₹67.20 lakh from the account of the informant’s mother to the account of her own relatives.

According to the prosecution, complainant Ralf Monetero and his brother live in foreign countries. Their 80-year-old mother lived alone in Bandra along with her maid. To assist her in her bank transactions, Mandal was appointed as the relationship manager by her bank.

In April 2023, when the mother was admitted to Holy Family Hospital and required money to manage her hospital expenses, she asked her sons to transfer some money as her account did not have sufficient balance.

Monetero was shocked to learn this because he had earlier transferred a total of ₹93 lakh to three bank accounts, including his mother’s account in the private bank handled by Mandal. Monetero immediately checked his mother’s account and found out that Mandal had withdrawn ₹67,20,333 from his mother’s account without her consent between January 2022 and March 2023.

Mandal, through advocate Prashant Ayare, prayed for bail on the grounds that she had already returned more than ₹50 lakh to the mother of the informant and that she has no criminal antecedents.

Vehemently rebutting this, the special public prosecutor Ashwini Raykar argued that over ₹30 lakh is yet to be recovered from the accused and prayed to reject the bail application on the grounds of lack of explanation regarding the use of these funds.