New India Cooperative Bank
Mumbai: The Mumbai police on Saturday arrested Hitesh Mehta, General Manager and Head of Accounts of the New India Cooperative Bank, for allegedly misappropriating Rs 122 crore from the bank, officials said.
Mehta was placed under arrest by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the city police after being questioned for more than three hours, an official said.
He was called to record his statement before the probe agency at its south Mumbai office in connection with the case registered against him and others, he said.
Mehta will be produced before a local court on Sunday, the police official added.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday superseded the cooperative bank's board for a year and appointed an administrator to manage its affairs. A day prior to that, it imposed several restrictions on the lender, including on withdrawal of funds by depositors, citing supervisory concerns emanating from the recent material developments in the bank, and to protect the interest of its depositors.
Acting Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Devarshi Ghosh, on Friday lodged a complaint against Mehta and others at the Dadar police station in central Mumbai for alleged misappropriation of the bank's funds, the police said.
"Based on the complaint, the police registered a case in the wee hours of Saturday, which was then transferred to the EOW for investigation," another official said.
As per the complaint, Mehta along with other associates hatched a conspiracy and embezzled Rs 122 crore from the safes of Prabhadevi and Goregaon offices of the bank, he said.
A case under the BNS sections 316 (5) (criminal breach of trust by public servants, bankers, and others in positions of trust), 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) was registered, he said. During the investigation, it came to light that the misappropriation of the funds had started soon after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. While the accused embezzled Rs 112 crore from the safe in Prabhadevi, Rs 10 crore were siphoned off from the Goregaon branch, he said.
ED conducts searches in bank fraud case
The Enforcement Directorate has carried searches at 12 locations in Mumbai as part of its probe into a Rs 142-crore bank fraud case, the agency said on Saturday. ED has initiated a probe based on an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against M/s Rialto Exim Private Limited, M/s Pushpak Bullion Private Limited, Chandrakant Patel and others under the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act. According to a release by the agency, it carried out searches on Thursday and uncovered details of immovable assets and movable assets (bank funds) and various other “incriminating” documents that were seized or frozen. Those named in the case are accused of causing wrongful the Central Bank of India and Bank of India a loss of Rs 142.72 crore. M/s Rialto Exim Private Limited is linked with Pushpak Group and was involved in circular transactions with various related entities of Pushpak without any actual trade or business for financial manipulation, the release said.
ED has discovered transactions of over Rs 500 crore between M/s Rialto Exim and other Pushpak Group entities. Transactions with various Dubai-based dummy entities and the purchase of a mine in the US by Pushpak Group's foreign entity were also uncovered during the searches and investigation, the release said.
The anti-money laundering agency has also come across more than Rs 84 crore of cash deposits, during demonetisation, in entities related to Pushpak Group. Further investigation is underway, the release added.
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