Key accused in New India bank fraud surrenders

Mumbai police's EOW arrested Ullhanathan Arunachalam, 62, linked to New India Co-operative Bank fraud, after he absconded since last month.

Mumbai: Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Sunday arrested Ullhanathan Arunachalam alias Arun Bhai, 62, in connection with the alleged New India Co-operative Bank fraud. The sixth person to the arrested in the case, Arunachalam was absconding since the fraud surfaced last month. He was produced in court on Sunday and remanded in police custody till March 18.

Ullhanathan Arunachalam alias Arun Bhai (centre), 62, was spotted in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kanyakumari and Pune. (Anshuman Poyrekar/ Hindustan Times)

Arunachalam, Arunachalam was absconding since the fraud surfaced last month, runs a partnership firm. He visited the New India Cooperative Bank in March 2013 for business purposes and befriended the main accused, Hitesh Mehta, ex-general manager of the bank. Police claim that he was close to

Mehta and had received ₹40 crore from the ₹122 crore siphoned by Mehta from the bank’s cash vault.

The EOW had issued a look out circular against Arunachalam and deployed multiple teams across various parts of India to trace him. “He was spotted in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kanyakumari and Pune. On Sunday morning, he arrived from Pune to Dadar and later came to the commissioner’s office in south Mumbai and surrendered himself before the EOW,” a police officer told Hindustan Times. Arunachalam’s son Manohar was arrested by the EOW after ₹12 crore, which he reportedly received from Mehta, was found in his firm’s bank account.

Another absconding accused in the case – Kapil Kalyanji Dedhia, 45, a civil contractor who allegedly received ₹12 crore from Mehta – was arrested from Vadodara in Gujarat on Saturday. A resident of Anand Nagar in Dahisar, he was subsequently produced in court and remanded in police custody till March 19.

Police are still searching for Gauri Bhanu and Hiren Bhanu, who have reportedly fled abroad.