Board of directors of Maha co-op bank violated norms to siphon off funds: ED

The board of directors of the Maharashtrabased Seva Vikas Cooperative Bank led by its former chairman Amar Mulchandani violated all banking norms deliberately sanctioned loans to shell entities and siphoned off funds the Enforcement Directorate ED alleged on MondayA statement of the federal agency to this effect came after the PimpriChinchwad Police arrested Mulchandani and five of his family members for obstructing an ED raid conducted against the former bank chairman on January 27 and destruction of evidenceAlso readToxic work culture Humiliation at workplace is driving employees to quitThe ED said it has seized gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 272 crore about Rs 41 lakh in cash four highend cars digital devices and incriminating documents during the searchesThe moneylaundering case of the federal agency stems from an FIR lodged by the Pune Police against Vinay Aranha of the Rosary Education Group and others for an alleged loan fraud The premises of Vinay Aranha of Rosary School Pune and Sagar Suryawanshi who have benefitted from this scam were also searched by the ED last weekThe agency said an audit of the cooperative bank found gross fraud and misappropriation of funds worth Rs 4296 crore spread across 126 NPA nonperforming asset loan accountsBoard of Directors led by Amar Mulchandani had violated all banking norms and deliberately sanctioned loans to ineligibleshell entities to siphon off the fundsBased on this audit report additional multiple FIRs were registered against theloan beneficiaries and bank management including Amar Mulchandani RBI has cancelled the licence of the bank the ED saidThe agency said on January 27 an ED team accompanied by bank panchas witnesses and Central Reserve Police Force CRPF personnel reached Mulchandanis residence in the PimpriChinchwad municipal limits located about 150 kilometres from state capital Mumbai and faced stiff resistance while entering the premisesED team was given to understand that Amar Mulchandani was absent and the remaining five family members lied and tried to mislead the search teamAll the family members as part of a wellplanned conspiracy had obstructed the lawful search of ED and this time was used by Amar Mulchandani to erase his phones and destroy evidence the agency allegedIt was subsequently found that Mulchandani was hiding in a room locked from insidePTI had reported on Sunday that the ED had called a locksmith to open the lock of the room where Mulchandani was allegedly hidingOn a complaint from the ED the local police booked all the six residents of the house Amar Mulchandani Ashok Mulchandani Manohar Mulchandani Daya Mulchandani Sadhna Mulchandani and Sagar Mulchandani under various sections of the Indian Penal Code IPC and all of them have been arrested the agency saidAll of them are now in police custody it addedThe Reserve Bank of India RBI cancelled the cooperative banks licence in October 2022The bank does not have adequate capital and earning prospects the RBI had saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever