In a simultaneous crackdown, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Pune Police on Wednesday arrested Ravindra Marathe, the Chairman and Managing Director of Bank of Maharashtra (BoM), his predecessor Sushil Muhnot and four others in connection with the Rs 2,000-crore DSK group scam case.
While Marathe was arrested from Pune, Muhnot was picked up from Jaipur. Three others — BoM’s executive director Rajendra Gupta, accused developer DS Kulkarni’s chartered accountant Sunil Ghatpande and DSK Developers ltd’s engineer department vice-president Rajeev Newaskar — were arrested from Pune, while BoM’s Zonal Manager Nityanand Deshpande was taken into custody from Ahmedabad.
The six arrests were made for advancing huge sums of loans to fraud-accused developer Kulkarni and his companies in the alleged violation of banking norms.
Masterminded by Pune-based DS Kulkarni, (DSK as the scam kingpin is known) and his family members and companies operating under the banner of DSK group, the scam involves a sum of Rs 2,043 crore. Kulkarnis and their companies had defaulted on loans secured from various banks, including Pune-headquartered BoM. They had also not paid thousands of depositors who had put in money in the company schemes and fixed deposits.
Marathe has been booked for allegedly misusing his powers to sanction shell companies huge amounts of loans, which were later siphoned off.
According to the chargesheet registered in the scam, the bank executives and officials had 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.
“During the investigations it has come to light that the BoM officials colluded with DS Kulkarni Developers ltd (DSKDl) and disbursed amounts under the garb of loans to the company,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Sudhir Hiremath, who heads the EOW, said.
The arrested accused have been booked under Sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, banker, merchant or agent), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
While extending loans to the DSK Group of companies, the bank officials had allegedly violated the norms of the BoM and the Reserve Bank of India. DSK and his companies face at least five FIRs in Mumbai, Pune and Kolhapur.
DSK and his wife Hemanti were arrested in February this year on charges of cheating over 4,000 investors of over Rs 1,150 crore and diverting bank loans for other purposes. DSK and his wife are currently lodged in Pune’s Yerwada Central Prison.
DSK’s son Shirish faces arrest, with the SC refusing to extend his anticipatory bail plea. Shirish, who was an executive director at (DSKDl) and a director in other partnership firms, has been charged with divesting depositors’ money for other purposes.
The DSK Group had raised Rs 2,892 crore by way of bank loans for its various pending projects, Rs 153 crore from the depositors and Rs 470 crore from homebuyers among other borrowings without possessing the wherewithal to repay this massive credit.
In a 36,875-page chargesheet filed before a special court in Pune on May 17, the EOW of the Pune Police had pegged the scam amount at Rs 2,043 crore.
Simultaneously, the Maharashtra Government had last month — through a notification — ordered the attachment of 124 properties, 276 bank accounts and 46 vehicles, belonging to the DSK Group on the grounds of protecting the interests of the investors as the scam kingpin was “unlikely to return their deposits”.