For this Anand MP, it's all in the family

AHMEDABAD: It is not often that all male members of the family of a BJP MP find themselves in police custody and that too on charges of cheating, forgery, breach of trust, conspiracy and embezzlement of bank funds. But, that is precisely what has happened.
BJP’s MP from Anand, Deepak Patel alias Sathi finds himself behind bars for embezzling an amount of around Rs 77 crore from a cooperative bank.
A supporter of the Keshubhai Patel faction, Deepak Patel who is also the managing editor of a local newspaper, ‘Naya Padkar’ now appears to be fast becoming a major source of embarrassment for the ruling party. This is especially in view of its newly acquired clout in this Patel-dominated region of Central Gujarat which is also the birthplace of the co-operative movement.
And there may be more trouble around the corner, with the Anand district crime branch probing alleged irregularities of Rs 70 crore in the Karamsad Urban Bank where BJP MLA from the area Dilip Patel is the chairman.
Deepak Patel has been accused of borrowing Rs five crore from the Charotar Nagrik Sahakari Bank (CNSB) in Anand, for his publishing house, the Sathi Prakashan for ‘buying machinery to expand his newspaper business in Vadodara’. The loan was borrowed in 2001 but was never repaid.
He has been remanded in police custody till June 10. The Charotar Bank has deposits to the tune of Rs 650 crore, of which Rs 600 crore is from NRIs.The region around Anand is well known for sending its sons abroad. The prosperous ones send large remittances back home.
The MP who is a Leuva Patel from Anand, established ‘Naya Padkar’ 20 years back. He contested for the parliament elections in 1997 on a BJP ticket for the first time, and won.
Apparently, the Rs five-crore loan was approved by chairman and MD of the CNSB Chiman Patel, who is none other than Deepak’s father. Chiman Patel, also the founder of the bank, lent this amount against inadequate collaterals, say sources. The older Patel is now lodged in Nadiad jail in the same case. He was actually arrested a few months ago.
Deepak Sathi’s brothers Bharat and Prakash who are also accused in the case are charged of having borrowed Rs 50 lakh for one Vimlaba Ladies Hostel and some Rs 1.5 crore for one Umiyanagar Construction Company, “both projects on paper for which money was borrowed on wrong collaterals,� says Anand SP Narasimha Komar. They were also arrested on Tuesday and have been remanded to custody.
Investigations now reveal that the money borrowed from the bank, founded by Chiman Sathi, under various family enterprises like cold storages, publishing houses, hostels etc, were actually to accumulate a sum of Rs 105 crore to “buy off the Calicut-based Nedungadi bank whose 55 per cent stake is held by one Rajendra Bhatia,� said a top police official.
A complaint was filed against Sathi and the rest of the bank board members by CNSB’s general manager Suresh Dalwadi on January 5, 2002, soon after the Modi government returned power. Says sub-inspector VJ Raval who is investigating the case, “There are 24 such files on irregular loans advanced by the bank amounting to an embezzlement of Rs 77 crore, which we are probing into�. Deepak tried hard to evade arrest by seeking conditional bail from the Delhi HC and then applying for cancellation of his remand to the SC, which was quashed.