Kotak Mahindra Bank has told the Bombay High Court that the Haryana Police sealed 109 of its branches in Haryana in connection with the Rs 150 crore bank scam in March, and that these were “de-sealed” only after Rs 127.27 crore was deposited in the Panchkula Municipal Corporation’s account.The alleged actions took place after the MC’s funds amounting to Rs 150 crore were siphoned off, and the branch manager at Kotak Mahindra Bank, Pushpinder Singh, emerged as the mastermind behind the scam. The high court had on April 6 granted interim relief to the bank, which had sought a freeze on the amount it had deposited in the MC’s account.According to the State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (SV&ACB)’s FIR dated March 24, the MC was maintaining 16 fixed deposits (FDs) with the bank’s Sector 11 branch in Panchkula. The deposits amounted to Rs 145.03 crore, with a maturity value of Rs 158.02 crore. Of these, 11 FDs worth Rs 59.58 crore matured on February 16. When MC officials approached the bank regarding the matured deposits, they were provided with statements that did not match one another or the MC’s records, particularly for the FDs, raising suspicions of large-scale irregularities. Pushpinder, along with Vikas Kaushik, a Senior Accounts Officer at the MC, allegedly fraudulently opened two accounts of the MC. Pushpinder allegedly transferred government funds from legitimate accounts to fraudulent ones. From there, the funds allegedly reached private individuals and were rerouted to Pushpinder. The scam had continued since 2018, according to the SV&ACB.During a hearing in the high court on April 6, the bank, through its counsel Janak Dwarkadas, submitted that the bank was called upon by the MC to make payment based on term deposit advices (TDAs). However, upon reconciling the bank’s accounts, 14 of 16 TDAs were found to have been prematurely redeemed in 2024 itself.The bank’s counsel further submitted that despite this, the bank was called upon to make a payment of approximately Rs 158 crore under the TDAs. He added that upon receiving the first communication from the MC on March 18 directing such payment, the bank was constrained to file a complaint with the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Panchkula. He alleged that despite filing the complaint, no FIR was registered but conversely, the police sealed the bank’s 109 branches, which crippled the bank’s functioning on March 30.The counsel pointed out that the bank had approximately 14 lakh customers in Haryana and total deposits of Rs 24,000 crore, and thus the “bank and its customers were gravely prejudiced by the action”.Dwarkadas submitted that it was only pursuant to the intervention of the Principal Secretary to the Haryana Chief Minister (Arun Gupta) that the 109 branches were de-sealed after the bank deposited Rs 127.27 crore in the MC’s account on the specific understanding that the amount would remain deposited until such time as the pending reconciliation was completed. However, on April 1 and 2, the bank received letters from the MC directing the transfer of the amount to an account with the State Bank of India.Dwarkadas argued that the amount had been deposited only pending reconciliation and was not in any manner deposited as a concession that the MC was entitled to such money, since the TDAs had been encashed in 2024.A Bench of Justice Arif S Doctor observed that the TDA under which the MC was claiming relief was clearly at variance with the standard TDAs claimed by the bank. The high court granted interim relief restraining the MC from dealing with the amount deposited in its account.