Ex-chairman and secretary booked for duping credit society of ₹1.74 crore

The seven accused jointly sanctioned four loans of ₹45 lakh each to four fictitious people and ₹39.52 lakh to a fourth fictitious person, and used all the money for their own benefit

MUMBAI: The Bhoiwada police on Saturday booked seven people of a cooperative credit society, including an ex-chairman and an ex-secretary, for allegedly sanctioning loans to fictitious borrowers to the tune of ₹1.74 crore. An audit allegedly revealed that the loan amounts were not repaid to the credit society, resulting in losses.

(Shutterstock)

The complainant, Suresh Kashid, 61, is a government-certified accounts examiner at the Cooperative Department in Vashi and lives in Nerul (West), Navi Mumbai. He had been the Chief Executive Officer at Pushpanjali Cooperative Credit Society, Mumbai, since 1990. After his retirement in 2022, he was appointed as the auditor of accounts under the panel of the state cooperative department, where he conducted audits of financial institutions and housing societies.

A police officer said cooperative societies appoint government-certified auditors like Kashid to audit their accounts. Similarly, the Konkan Vikas Cooperative Credit Society in Naigaon had appointed him as an auditor for the year 2023-24. Following this, Kashid and his assistants - Roshan Bhagat and Akshay Avere - conducted an audit for the financial year 2023-24 and noticed discrepancies that had taken place between November 2015 and March 2020.

In his complaint, he said the credit society’s ex-chairman K Shinde and ex-secretary K Shinde, helped by five others, jointly sanctioned four loans of ₹45 lakh each to four fictitious people - Gufran Ali Shaikh, Anwar Ali Shaikh, Imran Ali Shaikh. A total of ₹39,52,900 was loaned to a fourth fictitious person under the name of Ijaz Khan. The total loan amount of ₹1,74,52,900 was sanctioned using forged documents and not repaid, thus duping the credit society, stated the FIR.

The police verified the audit and found that the seven suspects had used the amount for their benefit. Those who assisted him include the director, N Waje, and manager, M Gurav. The FIR states that an investigation needs to be undertaken to see if other members of the credit society have also taken part in the scam.

Based on Kashid’s recent complaint to the Bhoiwada police station and the additional registrar cooperative societies, Pune, the police verified the audit and registered an FIR on Saturday under sections 420 (forgery), 401(belonging to a gang of thieves), 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Senior inspector Sachin Kadam said that no arrests have been made in the case so far and further investigation is going on.