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The bank’s general manager and head of the accounts Hitesh Mehta, its former CEO Abhimanyu Bhone and real estate developer Dharmesh Poon have been arrested so far in the case.
A police van outside a branch of New India Cooperative Bank. (PTI photo)
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 CEO Abhimanyu Bhone and real estate developer Dharmesh Poon have been arrested in the case so far.
The three were sent to EOV detained by a local court by 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 extended by the bank. 122 crore rupees were found missing by Reserve Bank of India officials. There is also an investigation 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 the people mentioned in the books along with the coffers were not indicated during the inspection, he said.
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, received kickback from other accused. Bhoan was the CEO of the bank from 2019 to 2024 and Hitash was an immediate supervisory officer of Mehta. In September 2024, the bank sent a proposal to RBI to expand Bhavna’s term. It was rejected by the RBI, “the officer informed.
“Bhon was the CEO till January this year, after which he went on a sick leave and then got relief from the post on 6 February. The analysis of the balance sheet for the period of 2019-20 showed that there were heavy transactions in the bank. Bhan, which was the link between the board of directors and the branches, denied that he knew about the 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, which was on the complaint of the Chief Executive Officer of Bank Devrishi Ghosh. 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.
(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and a syndicated news agency has been published from feed – PTI,
