HC raps police for lethargic probe in homemaker’s complaint about

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday criticised the police for its lackadaisical approach in investigating a case regarding the alleged siphoning of funds worth ₹3 crore from a Mumbai-based homemaker’s bank account.
A bench of justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj Chavan was hearing a plea by Meenakshi Kapuria, who claimed that her bank’s relationship manager siphoned funds from her account under the pretext of investing the money in mutual funds and gold bonds, among other schemes.
Kapuria’s lawyer, Rizwan Siddiquee, had previously told the court that the police, in a bid to “settle the matter,” had not investigated the case as expected and that the main accused was still not arrested. He said that his client “had to run from pillar to post for two days before a First Information Report could be registered”, adding that the police had still not collected the blank signed cheques that the accused used for the crime.
Addressing deputy commissioner of police (zone 8) Dikshit Gedam, who the court had summoned on Tuesday, justice Mohite-Dere said, “We were constrained to call you only to apprise you regarding the complaints against your officers. Every day, we are receiving such complaints against police officers from various police stations.”
Gedam told the court that he had transferred the investigation to Gajanan Pawar, a senior police inspector at the Versova police station. He further said that a departmental inquiry had been initiated against the police officer responsible for the lax investigation.
According to Siddique, his client’s bank’s relationship manager gained her full trust and confidence before taking blank signed cheques from her, promising that the money would be invested for better returns. He added that Kapuria did not receive any SMS alerts or emails about the transactions when the accused transferred the money into various accounts.
Gedam, while answering a court query, revealed that the relationship manager had changed Kapuria’s contact details available with the bank. “This is serious. How does the mobile number get changed from the system? How did the relationship manager do it?” the court said, noting the implications of such frauds, especially for senior citizens who park their life savings in banks.