Saraswat Bank has issued a statement clearing their role in connection with a criminal offence filed against the bank and its officials by the Kothrud police station in Pune.
The police had registered a case under sections 34 (common intention), 406 (Punishment for criminal breach of trust), 409 (Criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (punishment for forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the Indian Penal Code.
As per the bank's statement, the FIR has been filed by a Director of Orange Medicare & Research Centre Pvt. Ltd. (OMRC) with the intention to create hurdles and to avoid loan recovery action of taking possession of the mortgaged property etc. as per latest order issued by Tahsildar in December 2021.
"It has been a trend for some defaulting borrowers nowadays to create all sorts of hurdles including criminal charges against banks which are trying to recover their legitimate unpaid dues. Saraswat Bank will not succumb to such pressure tactics and will pursue all legal remedies to take possession of the property of the defaulting company," the bank stated in a statement.
"Under the provision of SARFAESI Act, we wish to place it on record that the said OMRC is the defaulter borrower of the Bank and at present, we have to recover around Rs 16 crore plus updated interest from it. In this regard Securitization Officer of the Bank has initiated by issuing notice of possession. We wish to further state that the borrower tried to enter into OTS with the Bank however failed to repay the agreed amount and hence OTS failed. Therefore apprehending that the Bank will take possession of the property, borrower has filed this false case against its Chairman, Managing Director and officials of the Bank. We deny all the allegations made in the complaint and we will also ensure that Bank will take all the steps to defend its action, its officials and take this case to its logical end," the bank further claimed in its statement.
