* 1 * Cri.Appeal-1844/2010 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION CRIMINAL APPLICATION NO. 1844 OF 2010 1. Mrs. Debbie A. Rodrigues Chief Manager- Deposits 2. Mrs. Sophia Ningsheng Relationship Manager State Bank of India. ....... Appellants : V E R S U S : 1. The State of Maharashtra through the Senior Inspector of Police, Cyber Police Station, CB CID, Mumbai. ........ Respondent * * * * Mr. Shirish Gupte, Senior Counsel i/by. Mr. Subodh Desai, Advocate for the applicants. Mr. Mukesh Bhagat, Advocate for the respondent. Mr. Y.M. Nakhwa, APP for State. Coram : Smt. R.P. SondurBaldota, J. Dated : 24th August, 2010. P.C. : 1. This application for anticipatory bail is filed by two bank * 2 * Cri.Appeal-1844/2010 officers apprehending their arrest in C.R. No.2 of 2010 registered with Cyber Crime Police Station, Mumbai for the offences punishable under Section 409, 419, 420, 465, 486 Indian Penal Code read with Section 66(c) and (d) of Information and Technology Act. The applicants had earlier filed similar application before Sessions Court which was rejected by the order dated 6th April, 2010. 2. Applicant no.1 has been working as Chief Manager, Deposits with State Bank of India (NRI Branch) and applicant no.2 as Relationships Manager. The complainant had kept 10 Fixed Deposits in the currency of U.S.$ with the Bank. By her e-mail dated 19th December, 2006 sent from Email I.D. lamrades@gmail.com she had given certain specific mandates as regards the deposits. In the Email, she referred to the instances of fraud played from her resident country Nigeria (West Africa) with various banks overseas and also the fact of her friends having lost huge amounts of money in Bombay branches [NRI branches] to fraudsters from Nigeria, as the reason for giving the following specific instructions to the Bank. 1] Do not allow any outward transaction until 31 “ st December, 2009. 2] Accept only credit entries. Reject all requests for debits until * 3 * Cri.Appeal-1844/2010 31-12-09. 3] If there is any attempt, please call me on 2341-7755826 directly at Lagos, Nigeria. Alert me instantly. 4] In case if, I need money before 31-12-09 as a matter of genuine case, I shall apply 3 ways to certify the genuineness of my transaction by [a] Calling you and speaking to the relationship manager. [b] Send you my passport copies alongwith the letter of transfer [c] Your relationship manager call.ng me back on 2341-7755826.” 3. On 16th January, 2008 the Bank received an Email addressed to applicant no.1 purporting to be from the complainant from the Email I.D. Rekha Devnani< rrdevnani2007@yahoo.com > requesting for termination of the deposits. By another Email dated 18th January, 2008 sent from the said I.D. the request was repeated. Then the Bank received a fax message addressed to applicant no.1 giving reference to the same Email I.D. requesting for transfer of proceeds of the deposits to an account in a Bank in HongKong alongwith copy of passport and an application form for transfer of the deposits. Based on this application, the applicants allowed the transfer, as a consequence of which, the complainant lost a sum of about Rs.30 lacs to the fraudsters. It has been contended on behalf of the applicants * 4 * Cri.Appeal-1844/2010 that the conduct of the applicants at the highest may amount to negligence in performance of their duites and not a criminal offence. It is also contended that considering the nature of facts of the case, no custodial interrogation of the applicants is required. Therefore, their arrest by the police is not necessary and hence anticipatory bail be granted to them. 4. Perusal of the record shows that the Bank had obtained the complete personal information of the applicant on its record by getting a form filled by her. The Email I.D. which has been on the record of the applicants is different from the Email I.D. from which request for termination of deposit was received. This by itself ought to have raised suspicion in the minds of the applicants. Further, all the communications were addressed not to the Personal Manager, but, to the Chief Manager which was contrary to the mandate. Thirdly, the fax received is supposed to have been sent from number 00000 . The Bank also has two telephone numbers on its record “ ” which are different from the telephone numbers mentioned in Email dated 19th December, 2006. Besides, as has been noted by the learned Sessions Judge, while rejecting the application for anticipatory bail * 5 * Cri.Appeal-1844/2010 filed before him, there are discrepancies in the fax register maintained by the Bank. It has been the case of the complainant that she had not received the receipts for the term deposits. This fact would definitely be within the knowledge of the bank as also the applicants. One of the Email messages referred to above, states that the original term deposit receipts would be forwarded to facilitate the transfer of the term deposits. In the face of these facts, in my opinion, this is not a fit case for grant of anticipatory bail. Hence, the Criminal Application is rejected. [SMT. R.P. SONDURBALDOTA, J]