HDFC officials charged with cheating

New Delhi: Delhi Police has filed an FIR against two top officials of HDFC Bank, charging them with cheating and breach of trust, after the bank allegedly deducted three EMIs from the account of a person without disbursing a loan to him.

In an FIR, lodged against the Managing Director and the Regional Head of HDFC on the direction of a Metropolitan Magistrate, it was alleged that the officials illegally and fraudulently deducted three Essential Monthly Installments (EMI) from the account of one Abhay Gupta who was never disbursed any loan.

The General manger of the Indian Bank, the banker of Gupta, has also been charged in the FIR for his alleged role in clearing the EMIs towards repayment of the loan.

Gupta, on December 19, 2005, was handed over a cheque of Rs 1.97 lakh after he was sanctioned a car loan from the HDFC bank through its direct selling agent, the FIR alleged.

But, the said cheque was allegedly dishonoured by the HDFC bank. When contacted, the Bank officials informed Gupta that the loan was never sanctioned to him, it said.

Gupta, however, was taken aback when received the repayment schedule from the Bank and was also issued a letter on February 15, 2006, threatening to use recovery mechanism if he failed to repay the loan.

He received another rude shock when he came to know that the Indian Bank had deducted three EMIs from his account through Electronic Clearing System (ECS) and denied his request to stop further payment to HDFC, the FIR alleged.

Earlier, the Defence Colony Police Station had refused to lodge an FIR in the case forcing Gupta, a resident of Masjid Moth in south Delhi, to approach a Delhi court for redressal.

Metropolitan Magistrate Chadra Shekhar, taking cognizance of his complaint which was filed through counsel Nishchal Joshi, had directed the police to lodge the FIR and submit the report after completing the probe.

The FIR has been lodged under various sections including 409 (breach of trust), 420 (cheating) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC against the accused.