BENGALURU: A city court granted anticipatory bail to eight people, including the CEO of Sri Guru Raghavendra Credit Cooperative Bank, who have been accused of abetting the suicide of the bank’s former CEO M Vasudeva Maiya.
Maiya had committed suicide by consuming poison on July 6. The case was handed over to the CID, which is probing a scam related to the bank. Based on a complaint by Maiya’s daughter, the police had named 11 people, including five bank staffers, as the accused.
The five bank staffers — CEO Santhosh Kumar A, Ravikumar Aithal, Rakesh D, Shripad Hegde and Prashanth HR — had moved a single anticipatory bail petition in the 51st Additional City Civil & Sessions Court. The court, while granting bail to them on Friday, observed, “By referring to the allegation made in the Maiya’s death note, the complainant mentioned the names of some of the petitioners in her complaint.
However, there is no prima-facie allegation made against these petitioners alleging abetment to suicide. It is needless to mention that the first petitioner (Santhosh Kumar) has lodged the complaint (against Maiya) as per the instructions of the Board of directors of the bank. That is not sufficient to infer that he is guilty of abetting the suicide” Meanwhile, three other accused — MR Rajath and Sathyanarayana, representing SH Mines, and Venkat Ashok Kumar Reddy— had moved petitions individually and have been granted relief. The court noted their names were not mentioned in the complaint but included based on the deceased’s death note.