Himachal’s Jogindra Central Cooperative Bank Former Chairman and present director Vijay Thakur, who has been accused of misappropriation of funds and misuse of power, has rubbished the allegation calling them nothing more than a political vendetta.
Sources said, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has ordered the State Registrar to probe against Vijay Thakur.
Talking to Indian Cooperative, Thakur denied all the charges and said financial matters are mostly dealt with by the Managing Director of the Bank. Every year Nabard and the Registrar of Cooperatives carry out inspection of the bank records. Saying he is not involved in any misappropriation of funds, he lost patience answering queries and slammed the phone.
Thakur is alleged to be involved in a number of issues which include foreign trip, favouring a private insurance company and blatant misuse of official vehicles.
Indian Cooperative has got the copy of the letter in which the charges against Thakur find mention. The copy is circulating in the corridors of the state cooperative department and leading to all kinds of gossip.
According to the letter, Thakur got his foreign tour sponsored by a private enterprise in lieu of the insurance business he promised them. He did not take the permission of the Government for the purpose, which is mandatory. The ex-post facto permission sought by him had been rejected by the then Minister of Cooperation.
Another charge, being on the board of several co-ops, Thakur used the official vehicle of the bank for his personal use. The official vehicle was taken beyond jurisdiction and was misused even for attending the meetings of private companies such as Himbunkar Ltd. Kullu.
Besides, as the Chairman of the Bank he allowed HRA @ Rs. 8,000/- per month to the MD by violating the Government instructions. An HAS Officer’s admissible limit is Rs.2,000/- per month.
Other charges include “The management has invested crores of Rupees in Mutual Funds through a single broker in different companies by withdrawing FDRs invested with other banks. There are rumors that Thakur got the commission of lakhs of rupees for the Investment. In one case, it is learnt that an amount of Rs 15 crore was invested with Franklin Mutual Funds, wherein the likely loss to the Bank is almost Rs 5 crore.
“In the audit report of the Bank from the year 2018 onwards various lapses have been reported and further inquiry in the matter may bring out still more wrongdoings”, the list of charges reads.
During the tenure of Thakur, Rs 3 cr was received from Integrated Cooperative Development Project (ICDP) as a loan for the establishment of Data Centre/software. Besides this, a subsidy involving lakhs of rupees was also given for the purpose. But it is learnt that no Data Centre has been established till date and as far as installation of software is concerned, it already exists with the bank. Thus, subsidy amount in lakhs of rupees was misutilised by the Management of the Bank.
It bears recall that in a recently held election of the bank, Yogesh Kumar has been elected unopposed as the Chairman of the Bank. Though the newly elected Chairman was not able to talk to us due to him being indisposed, Kumar assured to come back after he recovers from his illness.
