In a serious breach of banking integrity in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, the Mau City Kotwali police have registered a criminal case against three staff members of Bandhan Bank’s Sadar Bazaar branch following direct orders from the local judiciary. The legal action targets the branch manager, the duty cashier, and a contractual employee identified as Mukesh Kumar, a resident of Nizamuddinpura. The formal complaint stems from an alleged financial embezzlement scheme where the bank personnel siphoned off ₹1.70 lakh out of a total ₹2 lakh cheque withdrawal initiated by a local customer. The case highlights heightened judicial scrutiny over internal branch malpractices, reinforcing administrative accountability when regular banking channels fail to protect depositor funds.

The Fraudulent Transaction: How ₹1.70 Lakh Siphoned During Cheque Clearance

According to the detailed police complaint, the complainant Osaim Aziz, a resident of Badi Masjid Kadipura in Mau city, visited the Sadar Bazaar branch on May 22 to withdraw funds from his mother’s operational bank account. Aziz submitted a valid self-cheque valued at ₹2 lakh to secure liquid currency for an upcoming family wedding and Bakrid festival expenditures. After completing the mandatory verification process through the branch manager, the cheque was forwarded to the cash counter where the cashier debited the account and placed the currency bundle on the counter. However, contractual employee Mukesh Kumar intercepted the cash, instructing Aziz to return during the evening hours to collect the physical currency notes. When Aziz arrived that evening, the worker handed over merely ₹30,000, promising the balance of ₹1.70 lakh on the following morning, only to begin stalling through persistent excuses whenever repayment was demanded.

Retaliation, False Case Threats, and Formal Police Investigation

The situation escalated over the ensuing month when repeated appeals to the senior branch leadership yielded evasive promises rather than restitution. Aziz alleged that upon confronting the branch manager and cashier over the missing funds, the officials turned hostile, using abusive language and expelling him from the banking premises. The matter took a severe turn when the complainant visited Mukesh Kumar’s private residence in Nizamuddinpura to demand the outstanding ₹1.70 lakh, where the contractual staff member aggressively threatened to frame him in a retaliatory criminal case under the SC/ST Act. Left with no administrative recourse, the victim approached the district court, which issued binding directions ordering the Mau City Kotwali police to register an FIR and initiate an exhaustive criminal investigation to recover the siphoned money and penalize the accused bank personnel.