The vigilant banker

On August 31, 2007, Rustom Tehmuras Banker, an officer of Bank of India, was felicitated by senior bank executives and police officials for unearthing a fake demand draft (DD) scam which would have led to crores of rupees loss to the Bank, as per a write-up forwarded to Parsiana. Banker played a crucial role in coordinating with the Bombay Police authorities in nabbing and arresting unscrupulous elements who had defrauded the Bank by way of fake DDs worth Rs 78.97 lakhs.

The process of recovering the money was complicated, Banker explained, when he visited the Parsiana office. Since the money had already gone out of the banking system an FIR (first information report) had to be filed. Then the Economic Offences Wing of the Crime Branch of Bombay Police came into the picture and there was an inquiry to trace the various transactions involved before the culprits were found. Sensing that more such frauds were in the offing, Banker took it upon himself to probe further and in a short time detected other DDs amounting to Rs 335.75 lakhs which would have been presented for payment. Due to his alertness, the authorities were able to thwart attempts to encash these DDs.

At a function held at the Bombay Zonal Branch of Bank of India Banker was presented a silver plaque by Additional Commissioner of Police, Crime, Sadanand Date and a certificate of honor by K. R. Kamath, executive director of the Bank. A. R. Kuppuswamy, general manager and zonal manager of Bank of India, wrote: "It gives me immense pleasure to congratulate you for the significant role in coordinating with the police authorities, beyond your call of duties…. Due to your active participation, our Bank could recover a sizeable amount… Your dedication and diligence towards our Bank is really appreciated.”

Banker recalls that in February 2004 he was honored with a similar letter of appreciation for foiling an attempt to encash a DD of one or two lakhs. He has also been deputed, over the last five years, to the Central Bureau of Investigation, Economic Offences Wing, Bank Fraud Cell on several occasions where his banking knowledge and sleuthing skills have been used to track down bad loans amounting to over one crore each.

Rustom Banker (center) being honored by top Bank officials and Additional Commissioner of Police Sadanand Date (second from right)

An unrelated activity has been his eight-year association with the J. J. Hospital Coroner’s Court where he was nominated as a member of the jury by the government of Maharashtra. He served there until the late 1990s when the jury system was discontinued. "The government would appoint a panel of five jury members of high public standing to serve at the Coroner’s Court as and when required. The main work I did there was during the riots in Bombay in 1993,” Banker recalls the horror of those days.

A student of Campion School, Banker obtained his BA in Economics from Elphinstone College and his MA with Agriculture and Industrial Economics from the University of Bombay. Having joined the Bank 30 years ago, he completed his graduation and postgraduation studies while he was employed, going for morning classes for the former and evening classes for the latter. "I am a third generation banker, coming from a banking family,” he told Parsiana. "My grandfather, who worked with the Shanghai Bank changed the family’s name from Palkhiwala to Banker. It was a trend among the Parsis of that era to take surnames which denoted their profession. My uncle too served with Bank of India, and he was instrumental in my joining the bank,” Banker recalls, confessing that he was initially reluctant to do so.