New India Bank case: Accused civil contractor held from Vadodara; in police custody till March 19
The accused, Kapil Dedhia, was arrested in Vadodara on Friday and brought to Mumbai on Saturday.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police has arrested an accused from Vadodara in the ₹122-crore embezzlement at New India Cooperative Bank, an official said on Saturday.
Civil contractor Kapil Dedhia was apprehended in the Gujarat city on Friday and brought to Mumbai on Saturday. A local court here remanded him in police custody till March 19, he said.
According to the police, ₹12 crore of the misappropriated amount was credited to Dedhia’s account. He received a part of the money from real estate developer Dharmesh Paun, also an accused.
Dedhia also received money from Unnathan Arunachalam, another wanted accused in the case, and prime accused Hitesh Mehta, the bank’s former general manager and head of accounts.
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Further investigation is underway to trace the entire fund flow and identify other individuals involved in the fraud, the official said.
According to the police, ₹122 crore was embezzled from the safes of the bank’s Prabhadevi and Goregaon offices in Mumbai.
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Including Dedhia, EOW has arrested five persons so far and many more have been named as wanted accused, including the bank’s former chairman Hiren Bhanu and his wife, ex-vice-chairperson Gauri Bhanu, who fled abroad just before the scam came to light.
What is the case about?
On Thursday, February 13, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed a six-month transaction ban on the bank owing to alleged misappropriation of ₹122 crore, carried out at its Goregaon and Prabhadevi branches.
Account holders gathered in front of branches in large numbers the next morning, desperate to recover their money.
As HT reported, all their requests for withdrawals were turned down, while banners at branch gates assured them that deposits under ₹5 lakh would be repaid within 90 days.
