The seriousness of the offenses and the need for custodial interrogation to address key issues influenced the court's decision to dismiss the anticipatory bail application.

JUDGMENT

Deepak Sibal, J. - Case taken up through video conferencing.

2. Affidavits filed on behalf of the State and the complainant are ordered to be taken on record. Copies of the same have been supplied to learned counsel for the petitioner.

3. Through the present petition filed under Section 438 Cr.P.C. the petitioner seeks the grant of anticipatory bail in FIR No.11 dated 18.02.2020 registered under Sections 409, 419, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 477-A , 120-B IPC 1860, Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and Sections 66 and 66-D of Information Technology Act, 2000 at Police Station Tarsikka, District Amritsar (Rural).

4. As per the affidavit filed on behalf of the State, on 18.02.2020 a complaint was submitted to the police by the Amritsar Central Cooperative Bank, Amritsar (for short-the Bank) alleging therein commission of irregularities and embezzlement by the petitioner, Sukhdev Singh and officials of the Tarsikka Branch of the Bank. Such complaint formed the basis of registration of the aforesaid FIR.

5. In addition to reporting the matter to the police, on the detection of the aforesaid embezzlement, the Bank also constituted an enquiry committee headed by a Deputy General Manager of the Bank which submitted its report dated 06.07.2020 as per which the petitioner and his co-accused were found to have embezzled an amount of 17,80,41,356.89/- by making false entries in "OFL Settlement Account" and "OFL Interest Settlement Account" of the Bank and in the corresponding records/accounts of the Cooperative Societies of which the petitioner and Sukhdev Singh were Secretaries. The accused persons were also found to have made reverse deposits to the tune of ? 2,35,72,906/- resulting in net embezzlement of ? 15,44,68,450.89/-. Such embezzlement was found to have been committed for the years 2014 to 2020.

6. After lodging the aforesaid FIR the State also conducted its own investigations. Rakesh Kumar, Manager of the Tarsikka Branch of the Bank, was arrested and his custodial interrogation revealed that he and coaccused Ram Kishore, Cashier of the Branch, used to make false entries in the accounts of three Cooperative Societies namely Tarsikka Multipurpose Cooperative Society, Bhattike Cooperative Society and Saidolehal Multipurpose Cooperative Society. Such false entries were made in connivance with the petitioner-Sukhbir Singh, co-accused Sukhdev Singh and Kulwant Singh who were the Secretaries of the aforesaid three Cooperative Societies respectively. Investigations further revealed that the petitioner, Sukhdev Singh and Kulwant Singh being Secretaries of the aforesaid three Cooperative Societies were the only ones who used to liaison between the Tarsikka Branch of the Bank and the Societies and by taking undue advantage of their official position as also the innocence and ignorance of the farmers/villagers/members of the societies committed forgery and embezzlement. They were found to have used blank cheques given to them by the simple, ignorant and mostly illiterate villagers which were used by them to siphon off money from their accounts. The modus operandi adopted by the petitioner along with his co-accused as given in the status report filed by the State is extracted below:-

"a Take blank signed cheques from the farmers on the pretext of renewing their loan limits;

b After securing these blank cheques, the petitioner-Secretary in connivance with the Bank officials used to manipulate banking entries so as to show that the concerned farmer/member has re-paid the earlier loan;

c Thereafter, the loan limit was renewed on the basis of forged recovery of earlier loan, and fresh cash advances/loans were made to the respective accounts of the loanees from the renewed loan limits;

d Then the blank cheque in possession of the secretary was misused and funds were either diverted to their personal accounts and accounts of friends or cash were withdrawn from the bank;

e All the instructions for conducting every activity