Banks are also responsible for deducting money from accounts, Allahabad High Court rejects bail application of those who blew money from Justice’s account

Allahabad High Court rejected the bail application of those who blew five lakh rupees from the account of the former judge of the High Court. The court said that if money is being withdrawn from accounts by cyber criminals, then the bank will have to take responsibility for it. Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav gave this order while hearing the petitions of four others including Neeraj Mandal alias Rakesh.

In this case, an FIR of online fraud of five lakh rupees was lodged in the Cantt police station on 8 December 2020 on behalf of the former Justice of Allahabad High Court. It was said in the report that on December 4, 2020, the caller on his mobile number posing as SN Mishra asked for information about passbook, Aadhaar and PAN number. In this process, the accused withdrew about five lakh rupees online from the account of plaintiff KSBI.

During the police investigation, the names of Raju Ranjan, Neeraj Kumar Mandal of Deodhar district of Jharkhand, Tapan Kumar Mandal of Jamtara district came up. Later the names of Shubho Shah alias Sabhajeet and Tausif Jama also surfaced. The police arrested the accused and sent them to jail. It was argued on behalf of the counsel for the accused that they are innocent. His name is not there in the FIR.

No seizure has been made from them. He has been falsely implicated. In response, it was opposed by the advocate of the state. It is said that the offense has been committed by the petitioners. This is cyber fraud. The court also heard the counsel for the Central Government, SBI and Indian Telecom in the matter. Subsequently, the bail applications of the four accused were rejected.

Customers’ money should be kept safe at all times
The High Court has also underlined the role of banks in the matter. Said that the money of bank account holders should be safe. Not only because the customer deposits money in the bank so that he can withdraw it when needed, that too, the money deposited by the customers in the banks is number one and thereby improves the economic condition of the country. On the other hand, there are people in the country who do not deposit crores of rupees in the bank and keep them hidden in the basements of their homes.

Neither the bank gets any benefit from these people nor the economic condition of the country. Therefore, that customer of the bank who is more honest towards the country, his money should be kept safe by the bank at any cost. If in any way, money is withdrawn by cyber criminals by robbing his bank account, then the bank will have to take responsibility for it. The Court observed that the accused had withdrawn money through cyber fraud from the bank account of a Justice of this Court and their advocates have admitted that the said money was returned by the accused to the plaintiff.