J U D G M E N T

The appellant herein is the accused in C.C.No.53 of 2004 on the file of the XI Additional Special Judge (CBI Cases Relating to Banks and Financial Institutions), Chennai, 2. Based on the reliable information received at the office of the Superintendent of Police, CBI ACB, Chennai a case was registered against the appellant for the offences of criminal conspiracy with unknown persons to cheat Indian Bank and its depositors and in pursuant to the conspiracy committed various illegal acts such as forgery, using forged documents as genuine and criminal misconduct of a public servant.

3. After completion of investigation, it was found that FDR's in respect of 9 deposits were forged and from those deposits, loans sanctioned fraudulently using forged documents as genuine to defraud the Bank as well as the depositors. For each of the deposits separate final report filed and taken on file by the Spl. Court for CBI cases at Chennai. The Learned Judge took cognizance and assigned C.C No's: 52 to 60 of 2004.

4. The Criminal Appeal No:15/2013 which is under consideration arises from the judgement passed in C.C.No.53/2004. Based on the final report, charges were framed. The substance of the charges is that, Mr. Chandrasekaran the appellant/accused, while working as Branch Manager of Thiruporur branch of Indian Bank during the period from 13.12.1999 to 29.06.2002, with a dishonest intention to cheat the bank as well as the depositors by name P.Sridharan and Smt.Shanthi Sridharan, had induced them to invest their money of Rs.3,60,000/- as Fixed Deposit in the bank in which the accused was working as Branch Manager. The receipt for the said Fixed Deposit is No.221984. The Appellant/accused forged a false FDR bearing No.173802 and gave it to the depositors then, as if, the depositors sought for loan against the FDR bearing No.221984 sanctioned loan. From the loan amount, the appellant/accused had issued demand draft for Rs.3,60,000/- in favour of M/s.Keerthivasan Investment Private Limited.

5. The accused, a Public servant working as the branch manager, in breach of trust, had fraudulently and dishonestly gave a fake FDR to the depositor and used the original FDR to raise loan, by producing forged application and pledge letter for advances against the FD in the name of Shridaran and his wife Shanthi Sridharan. The loan sanctioned by the accused and the loan amount of Rs.3,60,000/- given as demand draft favouring M/s.Keerthivasan Investment Private Limited for the shares purchased in the name of the accused wife. Thereby, committed offences punishable for cheating, forgery, forgery for the purpose of cheating using forged documents as genuine and misconduct to make pecuniary advantage.

6. The trial Court framed the below charges:-

Charge No.1: u/s.420 IPC Charge No.2: u/s.409 IPC (3 counts)

Charge No.3: u/s.468 IPC Charge No.4: u/s.468 r/w. 471 IPC Charge No.5: u/s.467 IPC Charge No.6: u/s.467 r/w. 471 IPC Charge No.7: u/s.13(2) r/w.13(1)(d) of P.C.Act, 1988

7. In this case, the depositors are Thiru.Shridaran and his wife Shanthi Shridaran. The amount alleged to have been misappropriated is Rs.3,60,000/-.

8. To prove the charges, the prosecution examined 7 witnesses (P.W.1 to P.W.7), marked 18 Exhibits (Ex.P.1 to Ex.P.18). Tmt.P.Geetha, Branch Manager, Indian Bank, Thiruporur Branch was examined as C.W.1.

9. In C.C.No.53/2004, which is the subject matter of the Crl.A.No.15 of 2013, under consideration, the sentence imposed on the accused by the trial Court is as below:-