Madras High Court quashes case against holder of a dormant bank account that was target of fraud

Madras HC quashes criminal case against holder of dormant bank acct targeted by group to deposit ₹9.99 cr via forged cheque. Court held acct holder best a witness, not accused. Judge agreed acct holder had no role in crime & could not be prosecuted just b/c others chose acct. PNB branch suspicious, inquiry revealed cheque issued to diff person for ₹8,737. Kilpauk police clamped down on nine, tenth accused roped in based on confession of ₹5 cr reward. No other material against quash petitioner. Acct holder not automatically an accused.

The Madras High Court has quashed a criminal case registered against the holder of a dormant bank account, which was targeted by a group of people to deposit ₹9.99 crore by way of a forged cheque. The court held that the account-holder could, at best, be a witness, and not an accused person in the case.

Justice N. Anand Venkatesh quashed the case with respect to the tenth accused person in the case, Kaushik Palicha, partner of Ramcharan Company, alone. He directed the second Metropolitan Magistrate at Egmore in Chennai to proceed against the other nine accused persons in the case, and complete the trial as early as possible.

The judge agreed with the quash petitioner’s counsel Sanjay Pinto that the account-holder had no role whatsoever to play in the crime committed by the other accused persons, and that he could not be prosecuted just because the others had chosen his company’s dormant account to deposit the money in.

“It is a matter of fact that there was a huge data leak in Punjab National Bank as a result of which, sensitive details of customers got exposed and it was taken advantage by many online fraudsters. This fact becomes material since the dormant accounts were also identified and an attempt was made to transact money through them,” the judge wrote.

In this case, some individuals had approached the PNB branch at Purasawalkam on September 22, 2021 and presented a cheque for ₹9.99 crore purportedly issued by Dilip Buildcon Limited of Madhya Pradesh in favour of Ramcharan Company in Chennai. However, the bank officials became suspicious. An inquiry with the Madhyra Pradesh company revealed that the cheque number in question was actually issued in favour of a man, Sachin Sen for just ₹8,737 on October 5, 2019.

Immediately, a complaint was lodged and the Kilpauk police clamped down on the nine individuals who were part of the crime. The tenth accused person was roped in solely on the basis of the confession given by the other accused persons that he had promised to pay them ₹5 crore if they succeeded in encashing the cheque. Other than this alleged confession, there was no other material against the quash petitioner, the judge pointed out.

“Just because the other accused persons had attempted to make use of a dormant account standing in the name of the partnership firm namely M/s .Ramcharan Company, that will not, by itself, automatically make the petitioner (A10) as an accused,” he wrote.