A Chennai court on Tuesday held Kotak Mahindra Bank guilty of perjury and imposed a fine of Rs 1,50,000 on it for collecting excess money on a loan issued to a customer.
The court also awarded a three-term imprisonment to S Karthikeyan, the bank’s legal head for the error.
The case pertains to a complaint filed by R Selvaraj, who said the bank had collected excess money when he foreclosed a loan he took in 2006, after paying Rs 1.7 crore a year later.
The complainant said after his auditor flagged the error, he approached the bank but the institute refused to give him a statement or a break-up of the money it collected.
Mr Selvaraj then approached the Madras High Court and filed a criminal case against the bank. In its affidavit, the bank initially claimed that no excess amount was charged but later, in 2012, transferred Rs 14,30,510 after court found that the customer was overcharged.
In 2023, the high court filed a case of perjury against the bank and directed a lower court to take up the matter.
“I don’t want this to happen to anyone. That’s why I struggled so long,” Mr Selvaraj said.
Commenting on the court order, a senior bank official said: “Yes, the order has been passed. I can’t say anything beyond.”
