The Bombay high court on Tuesday granted temporary protection from arrest to a branch manager of the State Bank of India (SBI) who is accused of misappropriating ₹36 crore out of the fixed deposits of the Bombay Iron and Steel Labour Board.
Byculla police booked Nikhil Roy, manager of the Mazagaon Circle branch of SBI, for criminal breach of trust and cheating on the basis of a complaint lodged by the Board on June 8, 2019.
The board alleged that it had deposited ₹45 crore in fixed deposits, and the bank had in April 2019 issued a letter certifying the deposits, but the branch manager misappropriated amount of ₹36 crore, which was purportedly shown as premature withdrawal.
Apprehending arrest in the case, Roy moved high court claiming that he had prematurely released amount of ₹36 crore - contained in four fixed deposit receipts on the request of the complainant board. He claimed that he processed the request, as it was supported by four separate resolutions of the board and had transferred the amount to four different entities, again as requested by the board.
Public prosecutor Deepak Thakare opposed Roy’s plea. He submitted that no such resolution was passed by the board and none of the fixed deposit receipts were validly discharged. He pointed out that all the original receipts were still lying with the board, and investigation to ascertain genuineness of the resolutions and receipts is on.
{{/usCountry}}Public prosecutor Deepak Thakare opposed Roy’s plea. He submitted that no such resolution was passed by the board and none of the fixed deposit receipts were validly discharged. He pointed out that all the original receipts were still lying with the board, and investigation to ascertain genuineness of the resolutions and receipts is on.
{{/usCountry}}Justice SK Shinde, however, noticed that the confirmation letter of April 11, 2019 did not bear the outward number. When confronted with this, Thakare sought time to verify genuineness of the confirmation letter.
On his request, justice Shinde placed Roy’s anticipatory bail plea for further hearing on July 10, with a direction to the public prosecutor to submit on interim report disclosing material particulars of the recipients of the amount alleged to be misappropriated.
The court has also directed the police to release Roy on cash bail of ₹50,000 if he was arrested in the meantime.
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