The Calcutta High Court on Friday coordinated the individual appearance of the HSBC Bank the executives for a situation recorded by a London-based legal counselor of Indian origin guaranteeing extortion and directing of assets [Orijit Das v HSBC].
The order was issued by Justice Ananya Bandyopadhyay in a case in which the plaintiff claimed that the non-resident Indian (NRI) services provided by the bank compelled him to open a bank account in Kolkata in order to facilitate the transfer of funds to his parents.
It was alleged that the bank invested in funds that generated losses, resulting in wrongful gain, by misusing the petitioner’s signed blank letters.
The order reads as follows: “The learned Registrar Administration (L & OM) is directed to serve administrative notice upon the opposite parties to ensure their personal appearance before the court on the next date of hearing through the concerned police station.”
In addition, it was claimed that the bank’s management forged the petitioner’s signature in order to sell mutual funds and diverted the funds into their own accounts via a forged home loan agreement.
In addition, HSBC was accused of defrauding his NRO account of funds in violation of his instructions.
The petitioner asserted, “Huge amounts of money were removed from the bank account of the petitioner without his consent, and when he asked for a bank statement, they refused or failed to provide any explanation for the same.”
According to the plea, even payments for expired insurance policies were siphoned from the petitioner on a regular basis.
The petitioner also claimed that the bank sent gangsters to his father’s house and made physical threats against him in exchange for additional payments on a home loan.
In July 2013, the petitioner had first filed a police complaint at the Shakespeare Sarani Police Station. A case before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) followed.
The CMM’s decision to dismiss the case in December 2014 prompted a revision petition to the High Court on the grounds that the order lacked legal justification.
“The Ld.Magistrate completely misdirected himself by dismissing the petition of the complainant and throttling legitimate prosecution at its threshold without considering the extensive amount of evidence provided according an opportunity to produce the evidence in support of the petitioner’s claims and contentions.” According to the plea.
The High Court summoned HSBC represented by its former director and country head for India, Naina Lal Kidwai, its former global chairman, Stuart T. Gulliver, its former Shakespeare Sarani branch head, Clement Philip, and several other employees who acted as relationship managers for the petitioner’s father in its order that was issued on Friday.
On April 17, the case will be heard again.
Debangshu Ghatak, a lawyer, and Souvik Bhadra, a partner at Ashlar Law, filed the petition.
