MUMBAI: The Pune Police on Wednesday arrested Bank of Maharashtra (BOM) Chairman and Managing Director Ravindra Marathe along with four other officers in a cheating case lodged against city-based real estate developer D S Kulkarni and his wife.
The bank’s present Chairman and Managing Director 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, police said.
“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).
As per the charge-sheet, the total scam is worth Rs 2,043.18 crore wherein the accused floated nine different firms to siphon off the funds collected from 33,000 investors and fixed-deposit holders who were promised good returns on their fixed deposits.
Of the total scam amount, the deposit and loan fraud is to the tune of Rs 1,083.7 crore, banking and non-financial institutions-related fraud of Rs 711.36 crore, debentures fraud of Rs 111.35 crore and fraud related to Phursungi land purchase of Rs 136.77 crore, said officials.
The police were probing the role of these bank officials for allegedly sanctioning loans to the builder without following due diligence.
What is DSK group cheating case?
Pune-based builder DS Kulkarni and his wife Hemanti are accused of cheating over 4,000 investors of Rs 1,154 crore and diverting bank loans worth Rs 2,892 crore.
The arrested officials allegedly colluded with the DSK Group by entering into fraudulent transactions and sanctioned loans with was later siphoned off.
All persons arrested have been booked for cheating, forgery criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust among others.