IMPORTANT POINT
Prosecution of additional accused – Mere absence of an accused person’s name in initial complaint does not, by itself, absolve him of criminal liability – An accused whose involvement surfaces during course of investigation may subsequently be added to charge-sheet.

ORDER (CAV)

This petition is preferred under Section 482 of Cr.P.C. seeking to quash the FIR in Crime No.1/2023 registered at Upparpet Police Station, Bengaluru, pending on the file of XXIII Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge, Special Judge, Bengaluru City.

2. By way of amendment application, petitioner has sought to quash the charge sheet filed in Spl.CC.No.1008/2023 for offences punishable under Sections 403, 406, 408, 409, 419, 420, 465, 468, 471, 120(b) read with Section 34 of IPC, Section 66 of Information Technology Act, 2000 (for short ‘I.T. Act’) and Section 13(1)(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, (for short ‘PC Act’).

3. Brief facts: One Pramod Kumar Y.S., working as Assistant General Manager and Branch Head of IDBI Bank Ltd., lodged a complaint alleging misappropriation of funds by Smt. Sajila Gurumurthy (accused No.1) Manager, IDBI Bank Ltd., based on which the aforementioned FIR was registered against the said accused for the offence punishable under Section 409 and 420 of IPC.

4. It is alleged in the complaint that at the instance of Smt. Sajila Gurumurthy, who was earlier posted as Relationship Manager with Gandhinagar Branch, Bengaluru, certain unauthorized transfer of funds have taken place from the accounts of certain customers from 23.03.2022 to 26.12.2022. Further, some of the customers’ accounts were debited for various amounts without their mandate and the fraudulent transactions occurred on various dates and the amounts so debited were transferred to other customers accounts of the Bank, amounting approximately Rs.2.72 Crores.

5. It is alleged in the complaint that, Smt. Sajila Gurumurthy has in writing confessed that she had booked LIC polices for some customers of the Bank by debiting the amounts from the accounts of other customers, without their authorization and she has submitted a hand written record of such unauthorized transactions, mentioning the names of such LIC policy holders etc.

6. A preliminary investigation and internal audit of the unauthorized transactions were said to have been conducted and it is stated in the complaint that, further details of the unauthorized/fraudulent transactions and the amounts involved would be furnished, once the internal audit/investigation are concluded.

7. Further complaint/information was given to the Investigation Officer furnishing the details, requesting to take necessary action against Sajila Gurumurthy, Deepti Koppolu and Pallavi. D. R., alleging they have defrauded the Bank and committed criminal breach of trust by fraudulently misappropriating around Rs.22.04 crores, as on 04.02.2023.

8. It is alleged that, during further enquiry, it was found that, Smt. Sajila Gurumurthy with the help of the branch staff Smt. Deepti Koppolu (Customer Service Executive) and Smt. Pallavi D.R. (Outsourced Sales Executive) have misused the customers accounts without their mandate for transactions like cheque, voucher, request letter etc., and fraudulently modified/removed customers mobile number and their e-mail ids’ so that customer do not get transaction alert. It is further alleged that, after Sajila Gurumurthy got transferred to Mission Road branch, fraudulent transactions were carried by Deepti Koppolu as directed by her, and the said Deepti Koppolu sent forged account statements to customers on various occasions to hide their illegal transactions and Smt. Pallavi carried out fraudulent transactions and made LIC polices in the name of her relatives etc. Further, the amount was fraudulently credited to the beneficiaries and a sum of Rs.96.00 lakhs was fraudulently transferred to various bank accounts of Gurumurthy, husband of Sajila. Further, around Rs.4.7 Crores was fraudulently transferred to the IDBI accounts of Thyagaraju B.P., Somu B.P., Maruthi B.P., and Thyagaraju B.P. accepted the said fraudulent transactions and remitted a sum of Rs.2.25 Crores.

9. It is also alleged that after the amount was fraudulently credited to the beneficiary, around Rs.