New India Bank case: Accused surrenders before EOW; six arrested so far

Mumbai: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police on Sunday arrested a wanted accused in the Rs 122-crore embezzlement at New India Cooperative Bank, an official said on Sunday.

Arunachalam Ullahanathan Maruthuvar (62), who had been absconding for the past month, surrendered at the EOW office in south Mumbai in the morning. He was produced in a court which remanded him in police custody till March 18, the EOW official said.

This is the sixth arrest in the case.

According to police, Arunachalam received nearly Rs 30 crore of the misappropriated funds from the prime accused Hitesh Mehta, the cooperative bank’s former general manager and head of accounts.

The anti-financial crime unit on Friday arrested the wanted accused and civil contractor Kapil Dedhia from Vadodara in neighbouring Gujarat. A court here has remanded him in police custody till March 19. Police said Rs 12 crore of the embezzled fund was credited to his account.

According to the police, Rs 122 crore was siphoned off from the safes of New India Cooperative Bank’s Prabhadevi and Goregaon offices in Mumbai.

Besides the arrest of six persons, a few more individuals have also 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.