The Madras High Court on Friday refused to discharge former Chief Manager of Union Bank of India, Mount Road Branch, Chennai, from a corruption case registered against him on charges of entering into a criminal conspiracy with one of its customers and causing huge loss to the bank by recommending cash credit facilities to the tune of Rs. 6 crore.
Justice A. Selvam dismissed a criminal revision case filed by R. Kannan challenging an order passed by a special court in Chennai for hearing Central Bureau of Investigation cases relating to banks and financial institutions, on March 25, 2011, rejecting his plea to discharge him from the case registered by CBI’s Banking Securities and Fraud Cell in Bangalore on September 25, 2008.
In the judgement reserved in the principal seat of the High Court in Chennai and delivered at its Bench here, the judge held that the relief sought by the petitioner was not legally maintainable since the special court had already framed charges against all the accused, including K. Ravi Verma, former Deputy General Manager of the bank, and the prosecution too had begun examining its witnesses.
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Citing a Supreme Court ruling that strong suspicion was sufficient at the time of framing of charges, the judge said: “The court below has framed the charges since prima facie materials are available against the present revision petitioner. Hence, this court cannot come to a conclusion that the court below has framed the charges unnecessarily without having sufficient materials or evidence.”