The Principal District and Sessions Court in Coimbatore on Thursday dismissed an anticipatory bail petition filed by an accused who was allegedly a part of a conspiracy hatched to defraud former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi of ₹6 crore by presenting a fake cheque.
Principal District Judge R. Sakthivel refused to grant advance bail to S. Sadiq, 31, after HDFC Bank filed an intervening petition and opposed the relief vehemently. The bank’s counsel Chevanan Mohan insisted that the petitioner must be subjected to custodial interrogation and not let off easily.
It was brought to the notice of the court that a person named Muruganandam had walked into the bank branch at Kovaipudur on May 26 and wanted to encash a cheque for ₹6 crore issued in favour of Thirumangai Charitable Trust. The bank officials suspected the genuineness of the cheque and found it to be a fake after scanning it with an ultraviolet machine.
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Thereafter, they contacted the account holder branch in Delhi and learnt that the account was held by Mr. Rohatgi and that he had not issued any cheque to the trust. On further inquiry, the bank manager found that a whole lot of people were involved in the forgery. After consulting with the top brass, he lodged a complaint with the central crime branch on June 7 along with the forged cheque, challan and CCTV footage.
The court was further informed that on May 28, two days after the Coimbatore incident, another fake cheque for ₹8.5 crore reportedly issued by Mr. Rohatgi was presented in Chennai. That attempt was also thwarted because of the alertness of the branch manager. Further, three more attempts had been made to cheat another customer of HDFC Bank to the tune of ₹17 crore and this “evidences that a network of persons are involved in these cases”, the bank said and insisted on a thorough investigation.