There were equally questionable advances of fraudulent nature in 'C' Branch. There were frauds committed in several accounts at this branch, where the Chief Manager, was a hot favourite of the Delhi Zonal Manager. At the time of my Inspection this chief manages was transferred to the Zonal Office as the Chief Manager in charge of Audit. One borrower who had two small units had borrowed from this Branch and also from SBI and IOB for same units giving different names for the units and showing a common security to all banks. Our Bank's exposure to the borrower was Rs. Two crores There were 9 or ten more accounts pertaining to Shadara and there were also other fraudulent advances (at least 3). No action on this Chief Manager, despite my submitting several reports pointing out serious instances of gross misutilisation of powers and functions.

Maximum number of advances to copper/aluminum cable industry was allowed from 'G' Branch. This chief Manager was dismissed from service around 1995. So too action was taken against chief manager of 'D' branch. It is not known what punishment was awarded. Enquiry was also conducted in 1996 against chief manager of 'R' Branch. But no action was taken on the borrowers, who were actually the main beneficiaries of frauds in all cases. Bank was never willing and was averse to entrust the cases to CBI, not even a single case.

What is narrated above is a fringe or a tip of the ice-berg compared to actual contents of the various inspection/investigation reports submitted by me in 1992, 1993 And 1994 on the advances pertaining to Delhi Branches.

I concluded these investigations by the end of December 92, having commenced in June of the same year. My exposures were not appreciated by Head office, though the veracity of anything reported by me could never be questioned by anyone. I was sent for further programme to Madhya Pradesh and thereafter to Bombay.

To preempt me from reporting further frauds, a decision was taken by Head office not to entrust me programmes for inspection of VLBs (Chief Managers' offices) and to utilize my services as Chief Inspector only for systems audit of Regional and Zonal Offices. I was called back to Head Office and given a brief reorientation training in conducting such audits during 1993 March or April. I was sent to a Regional office in Haryana followed by a Zonal office in Western U.P. thereafter. Subsequently I was entrusted programmes for Regional Offices one at Bihar, one at West Bengal, one at M.P followed by a Zonal office at M.P. My tenure with Inspection Department ended in 1994 with my last programme given for a Branch in eastern U.P. I then joined as Chief Manager of Tilak Nagar Branch in New Delhi, where I retired.

But it was not to be a smooth retirement. The story was not to end and destiny had more serious frauds in store to be reported by me. In 1993 another Nationalised Bank was merged with MYBANK, and for once as an exception I was asked to inspect their main branch at New Delhi shifting me temporarily from the programme then on hand at the Zonal Office, Western U.P. This brought me back to Delhi and caused my prolonged stay at Delhi inspecting the messy branch of the new outfit, where again there was occasion for submitting scores of fraud reports.

At this juncture a complaint received by the vigilance section of Banking Division, Finance Ministry, Government of India on the "M" Branch inspected by me during the previous year was forwarded to the Bank for investigation and action. It was received in the Inspection Department and by coincidence was entrusted to me for investigation. The complaint referred to allegations relating not only the Branch, but also the Zonal office, Delhi and alleged bribe of Rs.1 Lakh having been taken for advances made at the branch to National Wire Industries and other customers referred above.

I started investigation first from 'M' Branch. It was one year that I had earlier left this branch after prolonged inspection and investigations. I found no follow up was initiated on my earlier inspection Report. The extracts of my findings on Account National Wire Industries were conveniently dropped at the Branch by getting the account transferred to 'P' Branch. These observations were not supplied to 'P' branch in turn and the borrower started thus with a clean slate at the new center. As I left Delhi earlier on 6th December 1992, the transfer of the account was effected on 7th December (the next day after my leaving) The 'P' Branch accommodated the borrower afresh with a new name for their business. The Dy. Zonal Manager of the Zonal office, who was alleged in the complaint to have received a bribe of Rs.1 Lac, was seen to have taken active interest in the transfer of the account. A new proposal for sanction of fresh credit limits to the new firm of the borrower was submitted by the Branch to Zonal office and the Zonal office cleared for sanctioning them fresh credit for Rs.52 Lacs. The borrower was also extensively given fresh accommodation at 'S' Branch.

The investigation conducted by me at 'P' Branch revealed direct involvement of the Zonal Manager, his two Dy.Zonal Managers in a conspiracy to provide fresh disbursements to this fraudulent borrower. At this juncture fresh information about fraudulent deals in 'C; Branch having made by the then chief Manager prior to his transfer and posting to Zonal office came to light. Obviously all these transactions and accommodations were not allowed without adequate bait. In Delhi Zone I could visualize that corruption was entrenched at the top.

At this juncture a critical development took place. The borrower National Wire Industries, for whom the 'P' Branch established Inland Letters of credit for supply of aluminum coils, defaulted payment of the bills, but had illicitly obtained delivery of the consignments from the transport company without production of the relative MTRs. The Asstt. General Manager 'P' Branch was in jitters. He transferred responsibility for solving the problem to the Zonal office and there was exchange of letters, and the Dy.Zonal Manager was visiting the residence of the borrowers and promising to get action by them to retire the bills.

After completing my visit to the branches and collecting all the required information, I visited the Zonal office to record the viewpoints of the Zonal Manager and others there and also to verify their records. Co-operation was bluntly refused by the Zonal Manager on the ground that they are not given any prior information about my investigation. Access to the records of the Zonal Office was not allowed. I closed my investigation without the cooperation from the Zonal Manager.

I submitted three voluminous reports to the CVO of the Bank. The first report related to my investigation of the actual complaint. I pointed out that last year unscrupulous middleman engineered fraud on our Bank in Delhi branches. This year this role is by our own zonal manager and his associates. This was in a nutshell the gist of my elaborate report stretched over to 100 pages. In the other two supplementary reports I pinpointed the role of the Zonal office in engineering mass corrupt advances in 'G' Branch and 'C' branch.

What happened later? I have provoked the powerful zonal manager, Delhi and sealed my career as inspector and virtually got myself as a "target marked for due action"(person marked for retaliatory punishment) by the powers in the Bank that counted at that time. I was removed from inspection duties within a few months and posted as Chief Manager of Tilak Nagar Branch in December '94 under the jurisdiction of the very Zonal Manager on whom I conducted investigation and submitted three volumes of reports alleging corruption charges. "Yesterday as Inspector I charged you as corrupt, but today you are my boss and please accept my salutation and give orders for my work". Am I to request him like that? I was to retire from Bank service in June 1996 and hence I was left only a short tenure of 16 months. The posting under Zonal Manager, Delhi was seen by me as a retaliation by the authorities to settle scores on my pin-pointing and reporting against the Zonal Manager. I was promoted and posted as Chief Inspector from Mysore in the South in 1991, and service ethics warranted that I should be posted at my home place for the last posting before retirement. I could have filed one more writ in the Delhi High Court, or I could have proceeded on leave preparatory to retirement and could have tried to avoid falling in a trap of vengeance and victimization. This was not my approach earlier, and I decided to work up to the last day of my service as my right and not to go to court against my Bank any more. I pointed out in writing the anomaly of this posting to the General Manager (Personnel) of the Bank. There was no response. I joined Tilak Nagar on 02.02.1995. Before that I reported at Zonal Office, Delhi on 30.1.1995 and conveyed my "respects" to my Zonal Manager.

How the follow-up action on my reports were made at Head office by the Chairman and the CVO under his control? The first instinct was to save and protect the Zonal Manager. The second priority came to be to isolate me from inspection and bring me under direct control of the Zonal manager affected by my reports and give him the opportunity he wanted to settle scores. Otherwise there was no interest by anyone to take action on the corruption cases, or report immediately to RBI the entire developments, or to request CBI to book all cases of corruption for their detailed investigation and action.

The CVO, as all CVOs are, was under the control of the Chairman. The authorities did not take any action on the Zonal office set up. The Chief Manager of the Vigilance Cell was directed to conduct a damage control exercise and submit a fresh report to redeem the Zonal Manager. This Chief Manager was on the verge of retirement and after completion of the mission entrusted, he was rewarded with a post-retirement appointment in Indian Banks Association. How this was possible? Since OUR BANK chairman was the Chairman of IBA at that time this appointment was possible. All allegations about the Zonal Manager pointed out in my reports were dropped with no action on the Zonal Manager by the chairman by the process of the 2nd report given by the Chief Manager of the vigilance cell. The two supplements to my Report were discarded deeming them as irrelevant. And the main report submitted by me was forwarded to the Zonal Office and the Branch 'M' for follow-up action on other officers mentioned therein. This follow up was to be done by the Zonal Manager. He did this by putting the report in cold storage.

The Zonal Manager in the year 1995 was transferred to OUR BANKCAPS and later he was promoted as General Manage and given charge of the Inspection Division, through which medium I conducted all the investigations. Now the police station with all records is with the control of the accused. The Zonal Manager kept in his direct service four lieutenants, junior employees of the Bank, and they kept company with him in all his postings. Whenever he was given new posting, the four will be transferred along with him under his control. After taking charge one evening, it is reported, suddenly it was decided to shift the Inspection Department from the present premises at Parliament Street, to a new building at Rajendra Place and in a hurry this work was entrusted after office hours to one of the four assistants of the ZM. The manner this was done lent suspicion to the exercise.

I joined Tilak Nagar Branch on 02.02,1995. I felt it was intended as a trap. But I decided to ignore the imminent threat and function normally evincing the same interest in development and administration at the Branch as I used to do before. Tilak Nagar Branch was no exception to the virus that characterized Delhi Zone at that time. After joining I found that all the advances were bad and sticky and have been improperly processed and dishonestly allowed. But I could work at this branch with keen interest and set right as many irregularities as possible. My most important achievement at the Branch was the total motivation that I could infuse in the employees. The deposits of the Branch improved from Rs.36 Crores before my taking over to Rs.48 Crores when I left after 16 months.