Page 108 - A Banker Down the Rabbit Hole

the court records and confirm if it was true. He deputed his junior
immediately who checked the records and confirmed that decree had
already been passed and they were in the process of transferring the
assets in the names of their wives in revenue records based on the court
decree.

Now we requested the counsel to take action immediately to protect the
bank's interest. He asked me the date of first recall notice when the
borrower and guarantor were asked to repay the entire loan amount due
to protracted default. I had borrower's file with me and fortunately for
the bank, the first recall notice was served a few months before they
initiated proceedings for transfer of property in the court.

Our counsel advised us to file a civil suit immediately. He proposed that
along with suit, he would request the court to declare the decree null
and void as the same was initiated after the recall notice was served on
them and they wanted to jeopardize the bank's interest and repudiate
their genuine liability on this pretext. Bank should approve filing of suit
at the earliest not later than a month. He assured that he could get the
decree declared null and void and get the recovery decree speeded up
against them in light of what they have done.

I moved the proposal to file suit giving necessary details of the case. The
amount was large by now and approval had to come from Head Office.
They wrote a letter to Zonal Manager alleging that there seems to be a
lack of follow up in this advance account, and Zonal Manager should fix
and advise responsibility on the particular officers of the bank.

I replied that we had already mentioned in the proposal all the details of
what follow up was done by me and both the earlier branch managers.
The second manager also approached them and they politely promised
to pay. When I joined, I also contacted them and they promised to pay.
It was quite natural for a new branch manager to wait for a while on their
written promise. But when I came to know about their wrong intentions,

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