A nationalized bank has filed a criminal complaint against Bank’s chief manager as Accused No. 1 and me as Accused No.2 in 2008 under IPC 409 and 420. I was Accountant of the branch where Chief Manager was working. The charges are that both of us have conspired and misappropriated bank’s funds to the tune of Rs.15.42 lakhs by misusing user ID and password of other employees. Charge sheet was filed by police with JMFC in 2011. Case is now at the stage of evidence of complainant. Otherwise there is no progress in this case after filing charge sheet in 2011.
I have gathered several documentary evidences to prove my innocence in this case and waiting for an opportunity to present them before the court. Both of us are fighting this case through separate Lawyers. Accused No.1 is a Law graduate and hence, well versed with criminal and civil matters and also was an Inquiry Authority for various disciplinary proceedings against SC/ST subordinate employees of bank and was President of a Union
Somewhere in 2013 Accused No.1 had approached JMFC to discharge him from this case citing various reasons and in his discharge application, he has put entire blame on me .He has stated in his discharge application that Accused No.2 had the habit of misusing user ID and password of other employees to carry out fraudulent transactions and also defended some transfer entries carried out by him in his ID pleading that by transferring money from one account to another account, neither the customer to whom the amount is debited nor the customer to whom the amount is credited have made any complaint to the bank and bank has not incurred any losses and moreover it is not the case that amount transferred from one account to another is credited to his account.
After 2 years of arguments, JMFC has dismissed his discharge application and ordered that there should be full trail of this case. Thereafter he appealed higher court in the district in 2015 against the order of JMFC. But, District court has also dismissed the appeal upholding the decision of JMFC. Thereafter he appealed High Court of Karnataka in 2016 where his appeal was dismissed. His writ petition filed before High Court of Karnataka in 2012 against the punishment of compulsory retirement also contains an allegation that I am the only person responsible in this case. This WP is still pending before High Court
Accused no.1 is aware that I am in the possession of documentary evidences to prove my innocence in this case and also the proof of end use of amount involved in this case and he is aware of his own guilt in this case which may be likely to be proved in the court. Now he is putting pressure on me to fight this criminal case on technical grounds and not to raise any other points which is the root cause for misappropriation of funds. He want me to invoke the provisions of Section 197 CRPC through my lawyer as per which prior sanction of appointing authority to prosecute a public servant which was not obtained in our case while lodging complaint against us.In this connection, I humbly request learned lawyers to guide me on following points
1. Whether I can invoke the provisions of Section 197 CRPC at this stage, whether it will give any relief to both me and Accused No.1 or I can continue with trial of this case and prove my innocence in this case
2. Whether I can come out of this case merely on the basis of Section 197 CRPC. Accused No.1 has suggested me to refer a case No. CRLRP 834 -15 decided by High Court of Karnataka on on 08.08.2018
Kindly help
