Top Officials of Cooperative Bank held for fraud

Enforcement Directorate  has arrested two top officials of the Pen Urban Cooperative Bank in Maharashtra’s Raigad district for allegedly routing Rs 774 crore of public funds for personal gains.

Shishir Dharkar, a former chairman of the bank, and expert director Prem Kumar Sharma were arrested for embezzlement of funds under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The duo is the “main conspirators as well as beneficiaries” of the money laundering “scam” that was carried out at the bank between 2001 and 2010, the agency has said in a statement.

They opened 685 “fake loan accounts” in various branches of the bank by manipulating bank records and pulled out the funds for personal gains, it said, adding that at the time of the closure of the bank, the total outstanding in these loan accounts was Rs 774 crore.

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.

Over 100 acres of landed properties worth over Rs 22 crore have been purchased in the name of third parties using the funds, it said, adding that the land is already attached by the ED.