PUNE: A special court here on Wednesday remanded sitting MLC Anil Bhosale, chairman of the Pune- headquartered Shivajirao Bhosale Cooperative Bank, and its three other officials in police custody for alleged fraud of over Rs 71 crore at the bank.
Additional Sessions Judge (Special Judge) S S Gosavi remanded the four accused in police custody till March 6.
Bhosale, an NCP leader who had reportedly developed proximity with the BJP in the last few years, is a sitting member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC).
His wife Reshma Bhosale is also one of the accused in the case.
She is a BJP-backed corporator of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
In January, the police had registered a case against Anil Bhosale, his wife and 15-16 others, including the board of directors of the bank, for alleged forgery, misappropriation and cheating.
Pune Police had arrested Anil Bhosale, one of directors of the bank Suryaji Jadhav, chief accountant Shailesh Bhosale and Chief Executive Officer at the Bank Tanaji Padwal were arrested by Pune police on Tuesday night.
The case was registered under sections 406, 408, 468, 471 and 34 of IPC and relevant sections of Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID).
Police said that on the directions of the Reserve Bank of India, the complainant, who is an auditor, had conducted a financial audit of the year 2018-19 and found Rs 71, 78, 87, 723 less in the 'cash in hand' segment of the bank.
"All the accused colluded with each other and cheated the bank by forging records," police had said.
In October last year, the cooperative department of the Maharashtra government dismissed the bank's board of directors and appointed an administrator.
Special scrutiny conducted by the Reserve Bank of India in April 2019 revealed several "adverse" features and "serious irregularities" in the functioning of the bank, the office of Commissioner of Cooperation had said.