Srinagar Court convicts two former Bank officials for fraud, forgery

Srinagar, Nov 1: Two former bank officials were convicted by a Srinagar court on Friday in separate cases of fraud and forgery that had been pending for nearly two decades.

City Judge Srinagar, Abdul Bari, delivered the two judgments, highlighting the long legal process required to address financial crimes within institutions.

In the first case (State vs. Mohammad Shafi Banday), the court found Mohammad Shafi Banday, the former Managing Director of J&K Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank Limited, guilty of serious charges.

Investigations by the Crime Branch revealed that Banday had manipulated his date of birth, declaring it as September 1, 1939, instead of the actual June 26, 1932. He achieved this by producing a forged certificate, which allowed him to overstay in his position for more than seven years.

The prosecution successfully argued that this act resulted in wrongful gain for the accused and a corresponding loss to the state exchequer. Sixteen witnesses, including senior bank officers, testified that Banday had taken his service book from official records and failed to return it.

The court convicted him under Sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document as genuine), and 201 (destroying evidence) of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC). The sentence will be announced at a later date.

In the other case (State vs. Nazir-ud-din Mir), the court convicted Nazir-ud-din Mir, a former recovery agent at the Bombay Mercantile Bank in Srinagar, for cheating and criminal breach of trust.

The case, originally registered in 2006, stemmed from a complaint by Mohammad Ayub Beigh of Karan Nagar. Beigh alleged that in 2004, Mir had collected ₹11 lakh from him towards the repayment of a bank loan but never deposited the money with the bank.

Forensic analysis later confirmed that the receipts issued by Mir bore forged bank seals and featured his own handwriting. After examining all documentary evidence and witness statements, the court ruled that Mir had "breached the fiduciary trust reposed in him by the complainant and the institution he served."

He was convicted under Sections 420 (cheating), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant), 468, and 471 of the RPC.