SBI branch manager appears before Gondia commission on warrant, pays disabled man Rs 6.86 lakh

The State Bank of India (SBI) had to yield to the strict stand of the consumer commission in Gondia. The bank had withheld money due to a person with disability for years. After a non-bailable warrant (NBW) was issued under Section 72 of the Consumer Protection Act, Arvind Kumar, chief manager of SBI's Gondia branch, appeared before the commission on Friday, October 30.

The commission took a firm line over the non-compliance with its order. It released the manager on a personal recognisance bond (PR bond) of Rs 15,000. The next hearing is on December 10, 2026. On that day the manager will have to furnish regular bail and his plea will also be recorded.

The effect of the court's firmness was seen the same day. The bank handed the victim, Pawan Tiwari, a demand draft or cheque for Rs 6,86,568 before the commission. Tiwari accepted it.

The case concerns Pawan Shravan Tiwari, a resident of Ganesh Nagar in Gondia. He lost an arm permanently in a train accident on January 3, 2015. The Railway Claims Tribunal (RCT), Nagpur, awarded him compensation of Rs 4.80 lakh in 2017. Of this, Rs 3 lakh was to be placed in a fixed deposit (FD) for five years.

Central Railway sent a cheque for Rs 3 lakh to SBI's Gondia branch in January 2018 itself. But the bank never created the FD. In 2022 the bank washed its hands of the matter, saying there was no record of the cheque having been encashed.

On Tiwari's complaint (No. 22/102), the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission gave its verdict on January 16, 2025. The commission's president is Vaishali Gajbhiye, and its members are Atul Alsi and Sanjay Joshi. The commission directed the bank and the railway to create the FD with interest from 2018 within 45 days. It also ordered Rs 25,000 for mental agony and Rs 10,000 for legal costs.

The bank kept stalling despite repeated applications. In June 2025 the victim then filed an execution petition (EA 19/2025) under Section 72.

At the hearing on August 13, 2026, Central Railway produced a letter from SBI's Mumbai main branch. It showed the bank's claim to be false, because according to the letter the cheque had been cleared in 2018 itself and credited to the Gondia branch's account. Seeing the open defiance of its order, the commission issued a non-bailable warrant against the branch manager. Fearing execution of the warrant, the manager appeared before the commission on Friday with his lawyer.

At the October 30 hearing, Advocate Parag Tiwari submitted the power of attorney and the personal bond on the manager's behalf. The commission accepted it and released him on a bond of Rs 15,000. The Rs 6,86,568 instrument issued by the bank was handed over to Pawan Tiwari.

The victim's side is now trying to find out through RTI which bank official was responsible for withholding the money of a person with disability for eight years. Advocates Sandeep Khated and Anita Das appeared for the victim before the commission.