Mumbai: The employees association of
Bank of Maharashtra
has come out strongly against the police arrest of its senior management, describing the action as ‘overstepping’ and a conscious attempt to divert attention from core issues.
On Tuesday the
Economic Offenses Wing
(EOW), Pune, had arrested Bank of Maharastra CEO Ravindra Marathe, executive director Rajendra Gupta, zonal manager Nityanand Deshpande and former CEO Sushil Munhot for ‘misusing their power and authority with dishonest and fraudulent intention’, among other charges.
The All India Bank of
Maharashtra Employees Federation general secretary Devidas Tuljapurkar said, “As a union, we are for the accountability of the top — including MDs and EDs. But here, in this case, investigative agencies have overstepped and overpowered in the way the above officials were taken into possession for interrogation and were kept in custody a day early to the annual general meeting of the shareholders, which as a coincidence is inexplicable.”
Bank officials said that for the Rs 10-crore loan, mentioned in the police report, the bank had obtained a security of Rs 15 crore and the same had been put up for sale.
According to Tuljapurkar, the lender had said it has enough security for its total loan exposure of just over Rs 97 crore. Symbolic possession of the property has been taken and the bank has published advertisements for auction of property, he added.
“This is a conscious attempt to damage the image of
public sector banks
(PSBs) and divert the attention from core issues. The way in which investigative agencies are hounding bank officials, they will stop taking decisions in credit and this is reflected in figures,” Tuljapurkar said.
Credit growth in PSBs as of March FY18 in comparison to March FY16 is down by nearly 2%. According to Tuljapurkar, this will result in PSBs pulling back from deposits and losing market share to private banks. “As a union, we stand for defending
PSB’s
and officials who are honest and sincere beyond doubt in discharging their role and responsibilities,” he said.
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