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Ravindra P. Marathe, the Chairman and MD of Bank of Maharashtran |
20/6/2018
PUNE: In a
sudden development, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) here arrested Ravindra P.
Marathe, the Chairman and Managing Director of Bank of Maharashtra, in a case
of Rs 30 billion fraudulent loans extended to Pune's DSK Group, an official
said here on today.
The EOW has also arrested the bank's Executive Director
Rajendra K. Gupta, Zonal Manager Nityanand Deshpande from Ahmedabad and former
CMD Sushil Muhnot from Jaipur. The 83-year-old Pune-headquartered Bank of
Maharashtra is ranked among the major public sector banks in India.
The bank's present Chairman and MD Ravindra Marathe, Executive
Director Rajendra Gupta, Zonal Manager Nityanand Deshpande, bank's former CMD
Sushil Muhnot, Kulkarni's CA Sunil Ghatpande, and vice president Rajiv Newaskar
of the engineering department of Kulkarni's firm, D S Kulkarni Developers Ltd
(DSKDL), were arrested, the official added.
While Deshpande was arrested from Ahmedabad, Muhnot was picked
up from Jaipur. All others were arrested from Pune, the police said. They were
booked under various sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
In May, the city police had filed a 37,000-page charge-sheet
against Kulkarni and his wife in the case. "As part of our probe into the
cheating case against Kulkarni, it came to light that these bank officials
colluded with DSKDL by misusing their powers and authority with dishonest and
fraudulent intention to sanction and disburse the amount under the garb of a
loan," said Sudhir Hiremath, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber and
Economic Offences). All the accused are being produced in the court today, he
said.
Marathe has been arrested for allegedly misusing his powers to
sanction huge amounts of loans to shell companies. According to the
investigators, the bank executive and officials colluded with the DSK Group
"with dishonest and fraudulent intentions to sanction and disburse the
amount of the bank (BoM)" under the garb of loans and the money was later
siphoned off.
All the arrested accused have been charged under various
provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and other laws pertaining to
cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and breach of trust. The Pune-based mega
group's owners D.S. Kulkarni and his wife Hemanti were arrested in February on
charges of cheating over 4,000 investors of over Rs 11.5 billon and diverting
bank loans of nearly Rs 29 billion.
As a follow-up in the case, last month, the Maharashtra
government had ordered attachment of more than 120 properties, 275 bank
accounts and four dozen vehicles belonging to the owners and the company
invoking the provisions of Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors
Act, 1999.
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