Two top officials of the Pen Urban Cooperative Bank Shishir Dharkar, a former chairman of the bank, and expert director Prem Kumar Sharma were arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The scam to the tune of more than Rs 650 crore between the years 2001 to 2010 robbed thousands of gullible people of their hard-earned money. “The duo are the main conspirators as well as beneficiaries of the money laundering scam”, reports PTI quoting the agency’s statement.
The agency also said that they opened 685 fake loan accounts in various branches of the bank by manipulating bank records and pulled out the funds for personal gains. The siphoned-off funds were used either to buy immovable properties, or pay earlier non-performing assets (NPAs) or taken out as cash through cheques or demand drafts discounting for personal benefits, the statement said.
Earlier, former RBI deputy general manager Abdul Bari Khan who is said to be involved in the Pen urban cooperative bank scam had surrendered before the court.
According to a report, Khan had submitted a false report on the bank’s financial situation. This came to light when another RBI official examined the bank’s accounts pointing out serious irregularities in them.
Tens of thousands of investors and depositors are affected by the scam. ED has now said that the scam is to the tune of Rs 774 crore.
Representative of the affected bank depositors’ group hope to get their money back through court by way of various property assets accumulated by the bank trustees and directors through this scam.
Hearing a petition against the Directors of the UCB in the Bombay High Court, the bench had stopped the owners of the illegal properties from selling or creating third party rights until the matter is disposed of.
Representative of the affected bank depositors’ group are also opposed to RBI’s move to appoint a liquidator. They fear that the move would greatly harm the interests of the small investors. The petitioners are insistent on the bank being reorganized and revived.
Presently the Bank is under the control of an Administrator.
