Mumbai (Maharashtra): The Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed the police to register an FIR in an alleged criminal conspiracy to open and operate a fake bank account in Mumbai, thereby siphoning off funds meant for a company based in Pithampur, an industrial city in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh.
Justice Subodh Abhyankar allowed a writ petition filed by Indore-based Vishnukumar Bhaiyya, former MD of Janak Intermediates Ltd, and directed authorities to initiate criminal proceedings based on complaints filed in October 2013.
Senior advocate Vishal Baheti appeared on behalf of the petitioner Vishnukumar Bhaiyya.
The case pertains to the fraudulent opening of a current account at the Bandra (West) branch of the erstwhile Bank of Punjab, now merged into HDFC Bank, using forged documents and signatures. The account was allegedly used for transactions amounting to Rs1.36 crore, with total losses claimed to have risen to around Rs 3.5 crore with interest.
According to the petition, Janak Intermediates was to receive Rs 5 lakh from Mumbai-based Mahansar Engineering Pvt Ltd. However, the company later informed that the payment had been made through cheques which were duly encashed.
Bhaiyya asserted that the company never opened such an account. Subsequent correspondence with the bank, beginning July 1998, yielded no substantive response despite multiple reminders and personal visits. He alleged that the bank withheld information, and the matter remained unresolved for years, even after the bank underwent a merger.
HDFC didn't respond to queries from the Free Press.
A complaint was later made to the Reserve Bank of India, following which account opening documents were made available. Bhaiyya said these revealed serious irregularities, including forged signatures and photographs of directors who had either resigned years earlier or were deceased at the time the account was opened in 1997. It was also alleged that mandatory KYC (know your customer) norms were violated.
Despite a police complaint in 2013, no FIR was registered, prompting the petitioner to approach the High Court. The court noted the account was opened in Mumbai in the name of the petitioner’s company using his and his father’s credentials. While his father died in 1994, the account was opened in 1997, the court observed.
The state argued that since the account was opened in Mumbai, the petitioner should approach authorities there. Rejecting this, the court held the offence had elements spanning multiple jurisdictions. It noted that while the fraudulent account was opened in Mumbai, the petitioner suffered the consequences in Indore. Referring to Section 178 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the court observed that offences committed across different locations can be investigated in any of those jurisdictions.
