ED arrests ex-Maha MLA in bank fraud case

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 16

The Enforcement Directorate today said it has arrested former Maharashtra MLA Vivekanand S Patil under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a case linked to an alleged fraud of over Rs 512 crore in a Panvel-located cooperative bank.

Agency officials said Patil (66) was arrested on Tuesday after his questioning at the ED office in Ballard Estate area in Mumbai.

The former MLA from the Peasants and Workers Party was arrested under various sections of the PMLA and is expected to be produced before a designated local court for further custody, the officials said.

The ED’s probe in the is case is based on an FIR registered against Patil and about 75 others in February last year by the economic offences wing (EOW) of the Navi Mumbai police that alleged irregularities to the tune of Rs 512.54 crore in the Karnala Nagari Sahakari (cooperative) Bank that is headquartered in Panvel in the neighbouring Raigad district.

The police had named Patil, former chairman of the cooperative bank, who represented the Panvel Assembly constituency in the past, as an accused along with the vice-chairman, chief executive officer and several others, who had obtained loans from the institution.

The irregularities were revealed after an inspection of the bank’s operations by the Reserve Bank of India, which led to a special audit of the lender’s 17 branches, the police had said.

The RBI had later restricted withdrawals at Rs 500 per depositor across all accounts.