Registration of complaint u/s 420 in the absence of a complainant
My brother was a branch head of a Bank in 1991. Large number of Bankers' cheque was used to be issued daily favouring Coal India Ltd which were purchased by coal traders for purchase of coal. At Coal India, there were fixed periods for sale of coal. After the expiry of the sale period, sale was stopped. Bankers' Cheques were signed by two officers. My brother, as branch head was not directly responsible for issuance of these cheques, but sometimes in emergency, he had to put his signature.
In 1994, there was an anonymous complaint that ante dated Bankers' Cheques were issued in the year 1991 by the Bank to help those traders purchase coal, who turned up after expiry of sale period. In a CBI raid 49 such cheques were detected where a date prior to the actual issue date was mentioned in the column for date of issue. As the books were kept open at Coal India, applications were received in back date and coal was sold. Bank was not in loss as proper commission for issue of Bankers' Cheque was obtained. In the process neither Coal India nor the Bank suffered any loss. No internal inspections of the two organisations considered these as irregularities.
Out of the 49 such cheques, two reportedly contained the signature of my brother. My brother was not aware of issuance of the back dated cheques. Signatures appearing on the cheques are either forged or he might have signed under work pressure based on the existing signature of one officer. A case u/s 120B, 420, 467,468,471 & 477A was registered against my brother and others. My questions are:
1. As no person has been cheated nor Govt has incurred any loss nor there is any complainant, can a case u/s 420 be registered? (In fact Coal India could sell the unsold coal and earned profit).
2. There was no meeting of officials of Bank & Coal India, the fact was accepted by the I.O. during cross examination, whether 120 B is sustainable?
Asked 8 years ago in Criminal Law
Religion: Hindu
