A day after the the Reserve Bank of India superseded the board of the New India Cooperative Bank, Mumbai Police have registered a case against the bank's former general manager for allegedly siphoning off Rs 122 crore from the bank. The case has now been transferred to the Economic Offences Wing.
The accusation is that Hitesh Pravinchand Mehta, who was responsible for the Dadar and Goregaon branches when he was the GM, misused his position and committed fraud of Rs 122 crore from the accounts of both branches.
VIDEO | Mumbai: Here's what Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Anand Dubey (@ANANDDUBEYK) said on RBI banning New India Cooperative Bank.
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"It is a very unfortunate situation. You can see that women and elderly have come in large numbers. The people are only saying that if RBI had to do this… pic.twitter.com/QtzyAJDOWN
The scam allegedly took place between 2020 and 2025. A case in the matter has been registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by the chief accounts officer of the bank. Apart from the GM, police suspect another person was involved in the scam.
The development comes a day after the Reserve Bank had superseded the New India Cooperative Bank's board for a period of 12 months. Shreekant, a former chief general manager of State Bank of India, was appointed as administrator to manage the affairs of the bank during this period.
RBI has also appointed a committee of advisers, which includes Ravindra Sapra, former GM, SBI and chartered accountant Abhijeet Deshmukh, to assist the administrator.
The action was necessitated due to "certain material concerns emanating from poor governance standards observed in the bank," the central bank said.
On February 13, RBI had issued directions to the New India Cooperative Bank that without prior approval of RBI in writing, the bank shall not grant or renew any loans and advances, make any investment, incur any liability including borrowal of funds and acceptance of fresh deposits.
Considering the bank's present liquidity position, the bank was also directed not to allow withdrawal of any amount from savings bank or current accounts or any other account of a depositor but was allowed to set off loans against deposits subject to the conditions.
"These directions are necessitated due to supervisory concerns emanating from the recent material developments in the bank, and to protect the interest of depositors of the bank," RBI said.
Hundreds of panic-stricken account holders of the bank had lined up outside branches hoping to get access to their hard earned money on Friday.
The RBI notification clarifies that eligible depositors would be entitled to receive deposit insurance claim amount of their deposits up to a monetary ceiling of Rs 5 lakh from the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC), as applicable under the provisions of the DICGC Act based on submission of willingness by the depositors concerned and after due verification.
