An official said on Friday that in the investigation of economic crimes in the case of New India Cooperative Bank embezzlement of Rs 122 crore, it has been found that the lender had given a retention limit of Rs 20 crore for the cash safe, although the books had worth Rs 133 crore. The amount was shown, an officer said on Friday.
He said that the physical examination of safe showed the amount less than the prescribed retention limit of Rs 20 crore in it.
The bank’s general manager and head of the accounts Hitesh Mehta, its former Chief Executive Officer Abhimanyu Bhone and real estate developer Dharmesh Poon have been arrested in the case so far.
The three were sent to EOV custody by a local court till 28 February, where they were produced during the day.
“According to the documents, the retention limit of the bank’s vault was fixed in 2017 for Rs 20 crore. This limit was never increased by the bank. The Reserve Bank of India officials had checked Rs 122 crore. It was checked by the officials of the Reserve Bank of India. It is going on to find out whether Safe has the ability to keep such a large amount at a time, “the official said.
He has also investigated why the discrepancies in the actual cash available in the bank and its chests as well as those mentioned in books were not indicated during inspection.
Investigations have found that Mehta had called the employees safely to bring cash from safe, some of which he kept himself, with a limit of Rs 50 lakh, Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore, he said.
“We are investigating whether Bhone, who was arrested late on Thursday night, received a kickback from other accused. Bhone was the CEO of the bank from 2019 to 2024 and Hitash Mehta was an immediate supervisory officer. The proposal was sent by RBI to expand the tenure of RBI.
“Till January this year was Bhun CEO, after which he went on sick leave and then got relief from the post on 6 February. Analysis of the balance sheet for the period 2019-20 showed that there were heavy transactions in the bank. Who was the link between Mandal and the branches, denied that he knew about cash in the bank, “the official said.
The official said that Bhone must have been aware of these transactions as the CEO of the bank.
He said that Abhijeet Deshmukh was also questioned on Friday evening, part of the chartered accountancy firm conducting audit for the bank.
Earlier in the day, the police demanded remand of Mehta, Paun and Bhoan, saying that the court needed to investigate a huge amount of documents related to the case.
It also told the court Mehta and Poon needs to face Bhone.
The case was registered at Dadar Police Station on 15 February. The investigation was then transferred to EOW.
Mehta and others have been accused under Section 316 (5) (Trust posts by folk servants, bankers and others under criminal violation of trust) and 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy).
The alleged misuse of money from the chests of the bank offices in Prabhadevi and Goregaon came to light after an inspection by the Reserve Bank of India.
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