Co-op bank chief, builder held in 35 cr fraud case

MUMBAI: The anti-corruption bureau (ACB) arrested the chairman and the directors of Bhandari Cooperative Bank along with a developer in a Rs 35 crore fraud case on Tuesday.
The ACB had registered separate complaints of cheating, forgery, corruption and misappropriation of funds against the executives of the bank, the developers and a few agents. The bank’s executives had helped the developer to secure a loan of Rs 20 crore, using forged documents, and they had also fraudulently sanctioned a vehicle loan of Rs 15 crore.
The executives, Umesh Chamankar, Rajendra Shethy, Santosh B and developer Sudhakar Mahatre were produced before the court on Tuesday and remanded in custodial interrogation.The fraud was committed between 2005 to 2009 and the ACB received a complaint regarding the fraud in 2011, an officer said. ACB officers registered the FIR in June. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had warned the bank over the irregularities. The RBI wrote to the bank’s officials that they were sanctioning the loan without verification of documents. An ACB officer said, “The chairman and directors were involved in the crime so they did not take any action.”
Mahatre submitted forged papers along with his proposed construction project in Mumbai and Thane and secured the loan. An ACB officer said, “Mahatre was not constructing any building.”
In the second case, the bank’s executives, with the help of agents, procured forged documents to disburse vehicle loans. An ACB officer said a probe was on into the role of other bank officials in the case.
During the investigation, ACB officers learnt that some other cooperative banks were also adopting similar modus-operandi to disburse loans, a senior ACB officer said.