CBI to challenge court relief to bank officers

Upset with a special court order for dropping the charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating and criminal breach of trust under the Indian Penal Code against officials of Bank of Baroda allegedly involved in a Rs 6,000 crore illegal remittances case in the absence of prosecution sanctions against them, the CBI is now preparing to challenge the court’s order in the high court.

On Tuesday, a special CBI judge Pawan Kumar Jain had refused to take cognisance of allegations of criminal conspiracy (120-B)), cheating (420) and criminal breach of trust (409) under IPC levelled by the CBI in its chargesheet against assistant general manager S.K. Garg and forex in-charge officer Jainis Dubey, even as it retained allegations under Prevention of Corruption Act. The court had held that the agency had not taken mandatory sanction from competent authority to prosecute them as per CrPC Section 197 for charges under the IPC, whereas the agency pleaded that the bank officials do not come in the definition of public servants as far as taking sanctions under the section is concerned.

Sources said the CBI will challenge the special court order in the high court after going through the judgement. CBI press information officer R.K. Gaur said, “The agency has received the special court order and the same is being analysed”. Sources in the CBI said the agency’s arguments are backed by the Supreme Court judgments, wherein it is clearly held that section 197 of CrPC protection is not available to bank and PSUs officials.

One of the cases being studied by the CBI legal team is Supreme Court verdict in K.Ch. Prasad vs J. Vanalatha Devi and others (1987), in which it has held that bank officials do not hold a post where they cannot not be removed from service “except by or with the sanction” of the government. “It was contended by the learned counsel that the competent authority who can remove the appellant from service derives his power under regulations and these regulations ultimately derive their authority from the Act of Parliament and therefore it was contended that the regulations are framed with the approval of the Central government but it does not mean that the appellant cannot be removed from his service by anyone except the government or with the sanction of the government,” the apex court had held.

The sources said allowing protection under 197 CrPC to bank officials would open pandora’s box as all those who have been chargesheeted and convicted will challenge their respective orders in courts. They said the agency has, meanwhile, kept its probe open against other officials of the bank and would be filing supplementary chargesheets.