Allahabad High Court denies bail to four accused of fraudulently withdrawing ₹5 lakh from bank account of former HC judge

The Allahabad High Court recently denied bail to four people accused of fraudulently withdrawing ₹5 lakh from the bank account of a former High Court judge via internet [Neeraj Mandal @ Rakesh v. State of Uttar Pradesh]

. Pertinently, single-judge Justice Shekhar Yadav also observed that bank has to take responsibility if cyber criminals rob customers' money from the bank.

"[Customers'] money should be kept safe by the bank and if in any way money is withdrawn by cyber criminals by robbing his bank account, then the bank will have to take responsibility for it," the Court said.

The Court was hearing a bail plea of accused Neeraj Mandal, Tapan Mandal, Shubo Shah and Tauseef Zaman who were arrested in a case of the cyber fraud lodged against them based on a complaint by former Allahabad High Court judge, Justice Poonam Srivastava.

In her complaint, the judge had alleged that some unknown people had withdrawn ₹5 lakh from her bank account on December 4, 2020, after she was tricked into giving personal details to a person who called her up identifying himself as a bank official.

Notably, towards tackling bank frauds, the Court agreed with the argument made by the Union of India to file a review petition against the Supreme Court's Aadhaar verdict .

The top Court in Puttuswamy had held that the move of mandatory-linking of Aadhaar with bank accounts does not satisfy the test of proportionality.

" The Court agrees with the contention of Shri S.P.Sing that he should file a review petition in the Supreme Court regarding the mandatory linking of the Aadhaar card so that the Aadhaar card could be linked with the bank account holders and online bank fraud can be prevented ," the Court said.

. The counsel for the accused, advocate Dilip Pandey, submitted that accounts should be strictly linked through the bank KYC and they should first make sure that the address and mobile number given by customers belongs to them.

Only after being satisfied on these things should they open accounts, he said. However, in a race to open accounts, banks do not take care about such precautions due to which the cyber criminals grab the money of innocent customers, it was contended.

. Mahesh Chandra Chaturvedi, Additional Advocate General, and Shiv Kumar Pal, Government Advocate, pointed out that cyber crimes are increasing by the day across the country and there is hardly any person who is not a victim of it.

In such a situation, the Government of India and the State government should devise a system to stop such crimes. It was suggested that the security of the customers' money should be guaranteed.

. The Court after taking into account the facts of the case proceeded to dismiss the bail plea.

"Keeping in view all the facts and circumstances of the case and without commenting on the merits and demerits of the present case, in my opinion no sufficient ground is found to release the applicants Neeraj Mandal alias Rakesh Tapan Mandal, Shubo Shah alias Subhajit and Tausif Jama on bail," the order said.

. [Read order]

Allahabad High Court denies bail to four accused of fraudulently withdrawing ₹5 lakh from bank account of former HC judge

Areeb Uddin Ahmed

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