ELURI PRASAD RAO Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, to issue a Writ of Certiorari calling for the records in Order dtd. 14/6/2023 in O.C.1890/2023 in PAO No.04/2022 dtd. 30/12/2022 in ECIR/HYZO/03/2017 passed by the Adjudicating Authority/2nd respondent herein and to declare the same as illegal, arbitrary, unjust and without jurisdiction of PMLA, besides violative of fundamental rights of the petitioner guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India and quash the order dtd. 14/6/2023.

(2.) The petitioner herein is a Director of M/s. Sri Bhuvaneswari Agri Processing and Marketing Private Limited and also engaged in public service activities. The General Manager, Retail Banking Group, IDBI Bank Limited, Hyderabad Zonal office had initially filed 3 written complaints dtd. 7/1/2017 to the Superintendent of Police, Head of the Branch, CBI, Anti Corruption Bureau, Visakhapatnam. Later, filed another complaint dtd. 15/12/2017 to the Superintendent of Police, Head of the Branch, CBI, Anti Corruption Bureau, Hyderabad complaining about the large scale fraud in the Guntur Branch of IDBI bank in the matter of processing and sanctioning loans under Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Short Term Loans for construction of ponds/tanks to farmers of fish farming/pisciculture.

(3.) The allegations made in 4 complaints in substance are that the Assistant General Manager and Relationship Manager (RM) of IDBI Bank Limited, Guntur Branch, Andhra Pradesh along with other unknown bank officials entered into criminal conspiracy with 2 mediators i.e. Mr. Ganduri Mallikarjuna Rao and Mada Srinivasa Rao and had processed, sanctioned loans by way of Kisan Credit Cards/Short Term Loans to 105 borrowers in and around Guntur District, without considering the eligibility norms, without verifying documents, without conducting any proper pre-sanction and post-sanction inspections, proper visit, without obtaining proper loan documents and securities, and without ensuring the end use of the loan; that after the sanction of loans, the loan amounts were disbursed to the savings accounts of the beneficiaries and that the loan proceeds were then diverted from the accounts of beneficiaries to the accounts of the aggregators and were later misappropriated causing pecuniary loss to tune of Rs.27.82 crores to the bank.