MUMBAI: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police will again seek custody of former general manager (accounts) of New India Cooperative Bank Hitesh Mehta and builder Dharmesh Paun in connection with the alleged embezzlement of ₹122-crore from the bank’s cash vaults.
“We want to confront Mehta and Paun with three other arrested accused – solar panel dealer Unnanathan Arunachalam, civil contractor Kapil Dedhia and Javed Azam, brother of a former BJP state secretary – as we are keen to find out who received how much from the ₹122 crore siphoned by Mehta from the bank and how they spent it,” a police officer aware of the matter told Hindustan Times.
The accused had been giving false information regarding the receipt and utilisation of siphoned funds which was even proved in the polygraph test Mehta was subjected to, the officer said.
The alleged scam came to light during an audit at the bank’s headquarter in Prabhadevi on February 12, when Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials found ₹122 crore missing from the cash vault. Later that evening, Mehta, an employee of the bank since 1988, met RBI officials and confessed that he had been siphoning off the cash from the bank’s Prabhadevi and Goregaon branches since the pandemic.
Apart from Mehta, five other accused who were arrested subsequently included Dharmesh Paun, who allegedly received ₹70 crore out of the siphoned amount from Mehta; Kapil Dedhia, who allegedly received ₹12 crore from Mehta; Unnanathan Arunachalam, who allegedly received ₹40 crore from Mehta; Javed Azam, who allegedly received ₹18 crore from Arunachalam; and former chief executive officer (CEO) of the bank Abhimanyu Bhoan, who was allegedly aware of Mehta siphoning cash and likely received kickbacks.
It was only after Arunachalam’s arrest on March 16 that EOW officers learned that in 2019, he had paid ₹18 crore to Javed Azam, brother of former BJP Maharashtra secretary Hyder Azam, from the funds he received from Mehta.
“After the fraud came to light, Azam hid Arunachalam in his own house in Malad and later arranged safe houses for him in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, as he was wary that if Arunachalam was arrested, his role in the case would be revealed,” said the officer quoted earlier.
Azam was questioned several times by EOW officers prior to his arrest on Monday, but had misled them, the officer noted.
“The accused have not been telling us what they have done with the money. Now that we have arrested all of them, we want to confront them,” said the officer.
The EOW has secured custody of Arunachalam and Azam till March 24 and it will move the special MPID (Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors) court to seek custody of Mehta and Paun once again.
“In case of Mehta, we still have two days of custody left,” the officer mentioned, referring to the earlier instance when he was taken into custody for 13 days instead of the standard 15 days.
The EOW has also informed the Department of Registration and Stamps (IGR) in Pune about the properties of wanted accused and former New India Cooperative Bank chairman Hiren Bhanu and his wife Gauri Bhanu. As chairman of the bank, Hiren Bhanu was aware of Mehta siphoning money and he and his wife received ₹28 crore as kickbacks, said EOW sources. The couple has already fled the country and a look out circular and blue corner notice has already been issued against them.
“We are in the process of attaching their assets, including a five-acre plot in Lonavla, a flat in south Mumbai and other properties in Gujarat and Maharashtra, under section 106 of the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS),” said the officer.
Section 106 of the BNSS authorises police officers to seize property that is suspected to have been stolen.