The main legal point established is the duty of care and skill expected from a professional, such as a chartered accountant, in discharging their professional duty, and the absence of evidence linking the professional to an alleged conspiracy.

1. The petitioner is a Chartered Accountant by profession with 12 years experience. He is also a partner in the firm M/s. Sekaran and Venkatesh. Indian Bank, Korattur Branch has employed the service of the petitioner herein to verify the credentials of one of its borrowers by name M.Murugan, proprietor of MMM Enterprises. The petitioner herein has issued due diligence certificates based on which the bank has extended housing loan for a sum of Rs.20,00,000/- to Murugan. Later it has been found that the certificates and documents such as DIS certificate, statement of bank account maintained with Kotak Mahindra Bank, Porur Branch are forged and fabricated documents and this petitioner along with the builder and others have connived to cheat the Indian Bank by producing due diligence certificate based on fabricated documents and induced Indian Bank to sanction Housing loan of Rs. 20,00,000/- to Murugan. Based on the complaint by the Bank now he is facing trial in C.C.No.2500 of 2017 on the file of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai for alleged offence under Section 120-B r/w 420, 468 and 471 of I.P.C.

2. The petitioner seeks quash of the criminal prosecution on the grounds that, the chartered Accountant, work in all fields of business and finance including Audit, Taxation, Finance and General Management. As a part of the work, Indian Bank has engaged him to cross verify the credential of Housing loan applicant Mr. Murugan. The questionaire was given by the Bank to be filled and submitted, based on the documents given to him. As a professional, he is expected to make preliminary enquiry to verify and comment on the financial detail provided by the loan applicant through the bank. When the housing loan application of one Murugan and Bhuvashwari along with the documents was forwarded by the bank for verification, he verified the documents and he provided Due Diligence certificate to Indian Bank, Korattur Branch for which a professional fees of Rs.750/- was paid to him. Vide his invoice dated 31.08.2013.

3. Based on the complaint given by one Nagarajan, General Manager/Zonal Manager of Chennai (North) Zone of Indian bank, to CBI, he was examined by IO, who asked to explain his role in the process of sanctioning loan to MMM Enterprises by the Bank. Accordingly, he has forwarded the detailed letter to the investigating officer on 09.12.2016 explaining his role in the loan transaction between the borrower and the Bank. To his shock he had been arrayed has 10th accused in the final report filed by the investigating officer. The overt act attributed to him as found in the final report is as under:-

...A1 connived with A-10 B.Ganesh, Chartered Accountant of M/s. Sekaran and Venkatesan who was employed by Indian Bank for verification of KYC and Income Credentials of borrowers of the Bank and on 29.08.2013, issued false Due Diligence/verification report to the Indian Bank that all the Information regarding M.Murugan are Genuine and Correct inducing the bank to sanction loans to the borrower M.Murugan...

....Further A-2 Shri.C.Ramamoorthy, Chartered Accountant, M/s. Sarathy and Babu, and A10 B.Ganesh, Chartered Accountant of M/s. Sekaran and Venkatesh, who were employed by the Indian Bank, Korattur for verifying the credentials of the borrowers like the salary slip, Form 16, Bank statements submitted by the borrowers. But A2 and A10 had connived with A1 Shri Rajendran and gave false report to the bank that all the false certificates are genuine and verified, without actually conducting any filed verification. A2 and A10 had knowingly issued false verification/due diligence report to Indian Bank, Korattur Branch, thus inducing the bank to sanction loans to the borrowers...

4. The petitioner contents that the role of an Auditor in case of verifying credential of the proposed borrower is to verify whether the borrower has filed the Income Tax returns; whether the bank statement provided to them reflects regular transac