Bank Of Maharashtra CMD arrested in Rs 3,000 cr fake loans case
Pune, June 20 : In a sudden development, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) here arrested Ravindra P. Marathe, the Chairman and Managing Director of Bank of Maharashtra, in a case of Rs 3,000 crore fraudulent loans extended to Pune's DSK Group, an official said here on Wednesday.
The EOW has also arrested the bank's Executive Director Rajendra K. Gupta, Zonal Manager Nityanand Deshpande from Ahmedabad and former CMD Sushil Muhnot from Jaipur.
The 83-year-old Pune-headquartered Bank of Maharashtra is ranked among the major public sector banks in India.
Two officials of the DS Kulkarni Group, chartered accountant Sunil Ghatpande and VP Engineering Rajiv Newaskar, have also been arrested in the same case, the police said.
Marathe has been arrested for allegedly misusing his powers to sanction huge amounts of loans to shell companies.
According to the investigators, the bank executive and officials colluded with the DSK Group "with dishonest and fraudulent intentions to sanction and disburse the amount of the bank (BoM)" under the garb of loans and the money was later siphoned off.
All the arrested accused have been charged under various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and other laws pertaining to cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and breach of trust.
The Pune-based mega group's owners D.S. Kulkarni and his wife Hemanti were arrested in February on charges of cheating over 4,000 investors of over Rs 1,150 crore and diverting bank loans of nearly Rs 2,900 crore.
As a follow-up in the case, last month, the Maharashtra government had ordered attachment of more than 120 properties, 275 bank accounts and four dozen vehicles belonging to the owners and the company invoking the provisions of Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors Act, 1999.
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Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
