Madras High Court dismisses plea of bank official

R.Karpura Sundara Pandian, Assistant Manager of IDBI Bank in Tiruchi Cantonment, allegedly committed a fraud by transferring the fixed deposits of the customers to his account.

The Madras High Court bench here has declined to allow the plea of an assistant manager of a bank to direct the inspector of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to submit prosecution copies at a trial court in Tamil.

According to the prosecution, R.Karpura Sundara Pandian, Assistant Manager of IDBI Bank in Tiruchi Cantonment, was booked by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption sleuths under various Sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, after he allegedly committed a fraud by transferring the fixed deposits of the customers to his account.

The CBI sleuths had collected numerous documents from the bank, depositors and account holders, all in English, contended Rozario Sundarraj, Special Public Prosecutor (CBI).

The case is pending in the trial court and the prosecution had submitted its copies in English, he added.

In his petition, Mr.Pandian claimed that he had filed a case in the trial court seeking a direction to the prosecution to file its copies in Tamil as it was mandatory under Section 207 of the Cr.P.C. He moved the High Court bench because the trial court had dismissed the case, Mr.Pandian’s counsel U.M.Ravichandran said.

Mr.Sundarraj contended that Mr.Pandian, a postgraduate, was working as an Assistant Manager in a bank, and was discharging his duties in the bank in English.

Hence, there was no necessity to submit prosecution copies of documents in Tamil, he argued.

In his order, Justice A.Arumughaswamy observed that the prosecution had served its copies in a language known to the petitioner.

The petitioner made the request for prosecution copies in Tamil only ‘to drag the case,’ he noted and dismissed the case.