UBI FD scam: Court grants pre-arrest bail to regional heads; rejects manager, local colleagues’ pleas

The Union Bank of India is a major Public Sector Bank in India. (Pic: The Voice of Malegaon)

The court of Additional Sessions Judge Sanjaysingh Umedsingh Baghele yesterday turned down anticipatory bail pleas of the Union Bank of India Manmad City Branch manager Ashok Saroj and his two local colleagues Sanket Gavai and Umesh Bhange while granting pre-arrest bail to three regional heads Prabhat Kumar, Amar Gupta and Krishna Prasad in the infamous Fixed Deposit scam case.

Kumar is Deputy Regional General Manager while Gupta and Prasad are Assistant Regional General Managers who together wield a supervisory control over the Manmad City branch while working from the Nashik Regional Head office. They do not have direct involvement in the day-to-day operations of the branch. On the contrary, apart from manager Saroj, Bhange is deputy branch manager while Gavai is a clerk. Unlike the regional heads, they have a direct involvement in the day-to-day operations of the bank branch. 

While granting bail to the three regional heads, the court observed, “In so far as the other applicants are concerned, they are from a different place, working in the supervisory capacity. They cannot be said to have played any direct role vis-a-vis the crime in question. I am not in agreement with the submission that they have got their hands in gloves with the persons working in the particular branch. Hence, they deserve anticipatory bail.”

Besides, the court made strict observations while refusing pre-arrest bail to branch manger and his two local colleagues.

Though, no specific role has been assigned by the co-accused Sandip Deshmukh to the applicant no 4 (Saroj), the applicant no 4 was expected to have knowledge of whatever was being done by the Asst. Br. Manager Umesh Bhange, whose name and role has been specified by co-accused Sandip Deshmukh. The applicant no 4 is said to be the custodian of the blank FD papers/bonds, as per the say filed by the police. it cannot be clear, unless a thorough investigation is conducted through the applicant no 4 as to whether he played any role or not in relation to preparation of fake FDs, the court observed

The court went on to say that the custodial interrogation of the applicant no 4 appears to be necessary for the purpose of thorough investigation on every facet of the crime, with a view to unearth his role, if any. In a separate pre-arrest bail plea filed by Sanket Gavai and Umesh Bhange, the court stated that the main accused Sandip Deshmukh told the police that Swapnil Gavali used to withdraw amounts of customers, which used to be distributed among Swapnil Gavali, Sanket Gavai and Umesh Bhange. The court while citing Deshmukh’s statement further said Umesh Bhange used to forge FD receipts and even FD receipts were not issued to customers.

From the statement of co-accused Sandip Deshmukh, the roles played by both the applicants in the misappropriation of the amounts is manifestly clear. The case involves the misappropriation of a huge sum of money, which is in crores. The custodial interrogation of the applicants is sine qua non, with a view to unearth the entire misappropriation of money and the forgeries committed, the court observed

How the scam got exposed

The Fixed Deposit scam at the Union Bank of India Manmad City Branch rocked the entire Maharashtra state. It was unearthed this year on May 15 when a depositor named Dileep Kulkarni came to the branch to enquire about well-being of his investment. The manager Ashok Saroj checked the records and found out that something was fishy and then went on to shuffle through FD records of other customers. After collecting details, the manager “realised” there was a scam and then himself lodged an FIR with the Manmad City Police on May 22 with CR No 0213/2024. In this report, he gave details of 12 such investors.

However, on May 26, the sitting MLA from Nandgaon Suhas Kande lodged an FIR naming the three regional heads and the branch manager Saroj along with his local colleagues as co-accused. In the first FIR, the manager named Sandip Deshmukh as the only accused. Initially, the scam was estimated to be worth Rs 1,39,65,000. In the second FIR with CR No 0222/2024, there are eight accused.

The worth of the scam has now been revised to Rs 4,30,46,535. Deshmukh was hired by the bank to market Union Bank of India’s insurance and FD products. Deshmukh would issue gullible customers bogus FD receipts with fake seal of the bank and fake sign of the official concerned by accepting from them ‘self’ bearer cheques. He had been working at the branch in his capacity since 2018 as an employee of the Star Union Dai Ichi Life Insurance company, a conglomerate of three firms namely Bank of India, Union Bank of India and the Japanese insurance giant Dai Ichi.