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1.3 Sh. B.D. Sharma was posted as Branch Manager of Dena Bank, Maya Puri Branch at that time. He remained posted there till 28.05.1997. He permitted temporary overdrafts (TODs) in the said account beyond his delegated powers and such TODs were not even reported to the controlling authority. His such act resulted in exceedings of Rs. 5,38,050/- as on 02.04.1997. According to CBI, since his act of permitting TODs was merely a violation of banking norms and not actuated by any malafide, his name was put in column no. 2 and departmental action for initiation of major penalty proceedings was recommended against him.

1.9 In terms of criminal conspiracy, accommodation cheques were purchased indiscriminately and temporary overdraft facility had been granted much beyond the discretionary powers. As per the banking norms, purchase of cheques and TODs were to be reported in the specific control returns to the Regional Office. However, such control returns were not reported in time. These were rather reported after considerable delay for post facto confirmation. Majority of the cheques were purchased without waiting for the realization of earlier purchased cheques. Cheques were also purchased despite the fact that various previous cheques were received back unrealized from the payee banks. Majority of the cheque purchased were from the account of M/s Suman Metals, M/s Star Trading Corporation and M/s P.K. Metals and those firms were not having any genuine trade transactions at all.

RIVAL CONTENTIONS 5.0 Ms. Jyotsna Sharma Pandey, learned Public Prosecutor for CBI has contended that prosecution has been able to prove its case to the hilt. According to her, bank officials had openly defied the Manual of Instructions and various guidelines of the bank and exceeded their discretionary powers and kept on purchasing cheques beyond their discretionary powers and did not even report such fact to the Regional Office. She has contended that officials of Dena Bank, who have graced the witness box, have clearly elaborated about the malpractices adopted by both the public servants- accused and it stands proved that they had purchased cheques in arbitrary manner and permitted temporary overdrafts on number of occasions. She has also admitted that M/s Balaji Metals was, actually, a benami account held by A-2 and he had used his driver/employee Dinesh Kumar Sharma (A-1) as a tool to exploit the public money but added that A-1 had obliged him for such act of cheating and conspiracy and he cannot take any shelter behind the alleged exploitation by a shrewd employer.

(ii) Even PW4 Sh. N.K. Sehgal has not attributed any misconduct on his part. Moreover, vigilance inquiry report has not been deliberately placed on record and the other two Vigilance Officers i.e. Sh. Vora and Sh.

A.N. Nargalokar have not even been cited as witnesses.

(iii) A-5 was posted as Accountant and joined Maya Puri Branch barely on 17.06.1997 and his job was to render assistance to Branch Manager and he never acted independently except for limited period of one week i.e. between 17.06.1997 & 22.06.1997 and thereafter A-4 joined as Branch Manager and A-5, being Accountant, was even otherwise not competent to purchase any cheque or grant any temporary overdraft.