Quick Summary: The Bombay High Court at Aurangabad canceled the criminal charges against Sharada Raut and others, who were accused of tricking a co-operative bank in Beed. The court decided that the issue was more about a business disagreement, not a crime.
In 2019, Sharada Raut, Minesh Raut, and Shivaji Raut, all from Beed, Maharashtra, were in a legal fight with the State of Maharashtra and officials from Champavati Urban Co-operative Bank. They were accused of breaking trust and tricking the bank under certain sections of the Indian Penal Code.
Sharada and Minesh, owners of Shri Sangameshwar Ginning Industries, took a loan of ₹40,00,000 from the bank in 2004, with Shivaji as a backup for the loan. The bank claimed they never planned to pay back the loan and used fake papers to get it.
Sharada Raut and the others explained that their money problems led to them not paying back the loan, not any plan to deceive. They had paid back ₹5,85,000 by 2008 but were labeled as defaulters. The bank had already started a process to get their money back, which resulted in a recovery certificate for ₹43,56,156.
"The deal is purely business-related," the petitioners' lawyer said, "and is not a crime."
The court, with Judges Nitin B. Suryawanshi and Vaishali Patil-Jadhav in charge, agreed with Sharada Raut and the others. They noted that the police report didn't have what was needed to prove a crime. The judges stressed that the issue was a business matter, not a crime.
"Just not paying back a loan doesn't mean it's a crime," the judgment stated.
The court canceled the criminal case, pointing out that turning business disagreements into criminal cases is a misuse of legal processes. This decision brings relief to Sharada Raut and the others involved and serves as an example for similar cases where financial problems are wrongly treated as crimes.
