HEADLINES:  

The State Bank of Saurashtra scam is a seven month old scam which happened in the year 2008. State bank of Saurashtra was one of the connect bank of the SBI. It was in the year 1902 that the State bank of Saurashtra was started as Bhavnagar Darbar Bank. Bhavnnagar is one of the sovereign entity or princely states of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. The requirement for a state owned bank was felt during the period of Independence when the princely states were all de-segregated to form the state of Saurashtra. It was then that the State Bank of Saurashtra got its shape from the statutory corporation of the Bhavnagar Darbar. Four other Darbar banks were merged into the Bhavnagar Darbar to form the State Bank of Saurashtra and they are Rajkot State Bank, Porbandar State Bank, Palitana Darbar Bank and Vadia State Bank. Finally in 1960 State Bank of Saurashtra was taken into the State Bank family as one of its fully acknowledged auxiliaries.


Thus after getting into the State bank group the State Bank of Saurashtra was able to give and get better business using the already well established network of the former. Two months later in the year 2008 after nearly 420 branches of the State Bank of Saurashtra were merged with the State Bank of India, a major scam worth Rs 95.40-crore was detected by the Reserve Bank of India from the Bhavnagar branch of the former during the period when it was the headquarters of the former State bank of Saurashtra. It is said that the scam began in April at the Milam Baugh branch, and continued till November 6, when cash was withdrawn in instalments from the currency chest. A charge sheet was issued against the Head cashier Kirit Purohit in a case of fraud and cheating has been registered for misappropriation of cash even as the police had not ruled out the possibility of involvement of more people in the crime.

Though investigation says that the currency chest was operated both by the cashier Kirit Purohit and the Accountant, the case has been registered only against the cashier which by itself gives an ambiguity in the problem. Parenthetically there are lots of doubts coming up of why the bank authorities made the Cashier Kirit Purohit submit a sworn statement or an official declaration to the police accepting responsibility for the scam.

The investigation also says that the seven-month old scam was kept under the carpet even when the merger took place in August 2008. From the complaint registered by Anil Mule Assistant branch manager of the SBI Nilam Baug division it could be seen that the scam had happened in such a way that the cashier has used withdrawal slips and not depositing money submitted in the bank deposited by a current account holder.

The case was filed and the charge sheet was issued under various grounds or sections including 420, 409, 406 and 403 of the IPC. Regarding the scam when questions were put forth to the Deputy Superintendent of Police, P. Bharada he clearly stated that investigations were going on and the cashier has been subjected to control or jurisdiction by force.

The other main accused of the Kerala Solar Panel scam who were already arrested are Biju Radhakrishnan, and Malayalam movie/TV actress and danseuse, Shalu Menon. Biju RadhaKrishnan had already a case filed against him regarding the murder of his wife Rashmi but still there was no serious action against him nor was he arrested. But however later when he was arrested by the Kollam Crime Branch CID, in Coimbatore in the state of Tamil Nadu he clearly confessed to the police that he murdered his wife Rashmi by giving her poisoned liquor. The next major accused in the Scandal of the Solar Panel was Saritha Nair who was the director of the Team Solar Renewable Energy Co. and another partner in crime with Biju Radhakrishnan. Arrest warrant was issued based on the complaint given by one of the person who was cheated by Saritha Nair in Ambalapuzha.

Disclaimer: This web page explains the scams that occurred in India. The information are collected from the media reports. www.indianmirror.com or it owners do not take any responsibility for the authenticity of the contents. Since some cases are in the court of law, we do not endorse any cases or do not conclude on the same. If you need any changes to be done on the above information, kindly contact us with valid proof. However sincere attempt is being made to create awareness in the society against this evil and to prepare the younger generation for a corruption free India.