Court denies bail to credit society officials who swindled ₹13.5 cr

The sessions court in Mumbai has rejected the anticipatory bail applications of the secretary and chairperson of Blue Peoples Cooperative Credit Society. They are accused of siphoning off over ₹13.5 crore of depositors' funds. The court emphasized the seriousness of economic offences and the impact they have on the economy. The accused were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.

MUMBAI: The sessions court has rejected the anticipatory bail applications of the secretary and the chairperson of Blue Peoples Cooperative Credit Society, who allegedly siphoned off depositors’ funds worth more than ₹13.5 crore.

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“The categorisation of offence for those who have gained expertise and use it for betrayal of trust has to be ranked worst. The aspect renders the act of the accused persons of no lesser gravity than the offence against body and life of the person,” additional sessions judge A S Salgar said while rejecting the pre-arrest bail pleas of the accused duo.

The court underscored that money acts like an important device of joy in life, noting, “The pains and agony when hard boiled money is defrauded should be seen as a yardstick or telescope of viewing the gravity of economic offender. Therefore, the offence needs to be viewed as graver when such economic offender(s) defraud a small man.”

According to the first information report, the informant Vivek Jadhav, a special auditor, was authorised by the government department of co-operative commissioner and registrar of cooperative societies, Pune, to conduct a re-audit of Blue Peoples Cooperative Credit Society from 2012-13 to 2016-17.

During this re-audit, Jadhav found multiple irregularities that enabled the directors and office-bearers of the society to cheat small depositors.

The directors and office bearers diverted the society’s funds by depositing cheques in their personal accounts or in the accounts of various companies controlled by them. Between 2012 and 2016, the managing committee including chairperson Shabana Khan, 24, and secretary Deepak Bhadange, 33, disbursed multiple loans illegally, without asking for sureties or passing relevant resolutions. The list of such bogus loans included ₹2.7 crore provided to a borrower in 2016.

Overall, the society’s managing committee misappropriated small depositor’s funds and caused a wrongful loss to the tune of ₹13.58 crore, Jadhav found during the re-audit. Subsequently, he lodged a complaint against Khan, Bhadange and other members of the managing committee at the RCF police station.

“The economic offence having deep rooted conspiracies and involving huge loss of public fund needs to be viewed seriously and considered as a grave offence affecting economy of the country as a whole,” the judge stated in the November 1 order.

Khan and Bhadange were booked under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 402 (assembling for the purpose of committing dacoity), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 120(B) (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.