Auditors of fraud-hit New India Cooperative Bank summoned to record statements: Police

Mumbai, Feb 25 (PTI) Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW), probing the Rs 122-crore embezzlement at New India Cooperative Bank, has summoned representatives of half a dozen firms that conducted audit of the fraud-hit lender at different times, officials said on Tuesday.

These financial services firms were involved in statutory, concurrent or internal audits during 2019-2024, the period when the alleged embezzlement took place, an official said.

As the initial audit of the lender was done by M/s Sanjay Rane Associates, a partner in the firm Abhijeet Deshmukh, is being quizzed by the EOW for the last four days. Now, the probe agency has summoned another partner in the chartered accountancy firm, Sanjay Rane, to record his statement, the official said.

Besides Sanjay Rane Associates, the EOW had summoned M/s UG Devi and Company, M/S Gandhi and Associates LLP, M/s Shinde-Nayak and Associates, M/s Jain Tripathi and Company and M/s S I Mogul and Company, he said.

Representatives of these firms have been called from Wednesday onwards to record their statements, the official informed.

"If needed, the EOW will seek forensic audit of the bank's financial records to ascertain how Rs 122 crore was misappropriated," he said.

Bank's former CEO Abhimanyu Bhoan, who is among three persons arrested so far for the alleged fraud, had signed all audit reports and balance sheets of the bank, the official said.

Bhoan was part of the conspiracy as he was aware how much cash was in the bank's vaults, he said.

Besides the former CEO, the bank's ex-general manager Hitesh Mehta and real estate developer Dharmesh Paun have been arrested in the case. The alleged misappropriation of funds came to light following an inspection by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

As per the police, Devarshi Ghosh, the bank’s acting chief executive officer, lodged a complaint against Mehta and others at the Dadar police station in central Mumbai nearly two weeks ago for alleged misappropriation of the lender’s funds.

Based on the complaint, the police registered a case and the probe was transferred to the EOW.

The complainant alleged that Mehta and his associates hatched a conspiracy and embezzled Rs 122 crore from the safes of Prabhadevi and Goregaon offices (in Mumbai) of the bank.

A case under sections 316 (5) (criminal breach of trust by public servants, bankers, and others in positions of trust) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) has been registered.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has superseded the cooperative lender’s board for a year and appointed an administrator to manage its affairs. PTI DC RSY

Source: PTI