Maharashtra cooperative bank’s GM nabbed in Rs 122-cr ‘embezzlement’ case

The Mumbai police on Saturday arrested Hitesh Mehta, general manager and head of accounts of New India Cooperative Bank, for allegedly misappropriating Rs 122 crore from the bank, officials said.

RBI supersedes bank board

Advertisement

• The Reserve Bank of India had on Thursday prohibited New India Cooperative Bank from issuing new loans and suspended deposit withdrawals, and followed it up by superseding the bank's board for mismanagement on Friday.
• 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 was siphoned off from the Goregaon branch, an official 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 would 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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday superseded the cooperative bank’s board for a year and appointed an administrator to manage its affairs.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.

The acting chief executive officer of the bank, Devarshi Ghosh, had on Friday lodged a complaint against Mehta and others at the Dadar police station in central Mumbai for the 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 and his 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 Sections 316 (5) (criminal breach of trust by public servants, bankers, and others in positions of trust) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the BNS was registered, he said.