A Mysuru court has sentenced a former State Bank of India chief manager to one year of rigorous imprisonment for fraudulently siphoning Rs 61.57 lakh from an internal bank account and the savings of a deceased depositor.
The First Additional Senior Civil Judge and Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Mysuru pronounced the verdict on Friday against Anirudh Vasantrao Kulkarni, who previously oversaw SBI’s Chamundipuram branch. In addition to the jail sentence, the magistrate ordered Kulkarni to pay a Rs 50,000 fine alongside Rs 50,000 in restitution to the bank to cover litigation costs and associated financial damages.
Unauthorized Transfers to Family Accounts
According to court filings submitted by police investigators, Kulkarni leveraged his supervisory role at the branch between May 13, 2009, and December 23, 2011, to execute unauthorized withdrawals. The prosecution established that Kulkarni removed Rs 40.53 lakh from an account registered to Krishna Iyer, a customer who had died on April 7, 2005, roughly four years before the transactions began.
Investigators detailed that Kulkarni also extracted Rs 21.04 lakh from an internal administrative account belonging to the bank. The diverted funds, totaling Rs 61.57 lakh, were routed directly into accounts held by Kulkarni and his son, Nandan Kulkarni.
Discovery of the Misappropriation
The irregularities first surfaced in December 2011, when SBI’s vigilance division received an anonymous complaint outlining illicit transactions at the Chamundipuram office. The communication triggered an internal investigation headed by the bank’s state vigilance chief.
The fraud was further corroborated when Krishna Iyer’s legal successors visited the branch to claim the remaining Rs 40 lakh balance in the account, backed by a directive issued by a Chennai court. Upon attempting the withdrawal, the family discovered that the money had already been siphoned off.
Restitution Fails to Prevent Conviction
Following the internal findings, law enforcement registered a cheating case against Kulkarni in 2012. The former manager was taken into custody and subsequently secured release on bail.
During the proceedings, defense counsel sought leniency, emphasizing that Kulkarni was 65 years old, suffered from age-related medical conditions, and remained the primary caretaker for his wife and 90-year-old mother. The defense also pointed out that Kulkarni maintained a clean prior record, had cooperated by attending every court session, and had voluntarily reimbursed Rs 62 lakh to the bank once the discrepancies were uncovered.
The magistrate rejected the argument that the financial reimbursement should mitigate guilt, ruling that returning misappropriated funds following the discovery of a crime does not absolve a perpetrator of criminal culpability.
