A Delhi court on Wednesday has dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of a bank manager, who has been accused of siphoning off Rs 15 crore from the account of an NRI couple.
Shefali Barnala Tandon, Additional Sessions Judge was hearing the pre-arrest bail plea of Vipin Mishra, a sales manager with the ICICI Bank, who allegedly induced the couple to invest and later siphoned off over Rs 15 crore. As per the prosecution, Vipin Mishra misappropriated the funds with another accused Varun Vashisht.
The Additional Sessions Judge in the order stated that keeping in view all the facts and circumstances of this case, the law laid down by the superior courts, regarding the nature and gravity of offence alleged and considering the fact that the present applicant or accused has evaded the probe and is still absconding and non-bailable warrants (NBWs) have been issued against him.
Subsequently, the judge dismissed the plea, stating that the court is not inclined to grant anticipatory bail. The court mentioned that there were allegations of cheating, misappropriation and forgery against Vipin Mishra and Vashisht. The court said that according to the investigating officer’s reply, there were CCTV footage where Mishra was seen withdrawing money from the complainant’s account.
The complainant’s counsel Prabhav Ralli said offences of such nature shook the faith of the public in the banking system. The Advocate had also argued that the applicant along with the other accused Varun Vashisht had induced the complainant to deposit funds in the bank with the assurance to make fixed deposits guaranteeing huge interests. Prabhav Ralli contended that it was found out that an amount of about 15 crores had siphoned off over a period of more than 4 years.
Previously, the complainant alleged that 50 beneficiaries were identified till date who had received money at various times from the NRE bank account without authorisation.