CMD, others held for 2-cr Maharashtra Bank loan scam

In a major swoop, the Pune police on Wednesday arrested Bank of Maharashtra CMD Ravindra Marathe, his predecessor Sushil Munhoot and four others in connection with the sensational DSK scam.

The mega scam, amounting to nearly Rs 2,000 crore according to the charge sheet filed earlier by the Pune police, is masterminded by Pune-based businessman D S Kulkarni, popularly known as DSK, and his family members and companies that run under the banner of DSK Group.

The Kulkarnis and DSK had defaulted on loans secured from banks, including the Pune-headquartered Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) and also could not pay thousands of depositors who had put money in the company’s schemes and fixed deposits.

The arrests were made by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Pune police. Marathe was arrested from Pune and Munhoot from Jaipur. The others who were arrested include BoM executive director Rajendra Gupta and BoM zonal manager Nityanand Deshpande, Sunil Ghatpande, the CA of DSK and vice president, Engineering, DSK Group Rajiv Newaskar.

They were arrested under sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467, 468, 471, 109 read with section 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

“During investigations, it has come to light that Bank of Maharashtra officials colluded with D S Kulkarni Developers Ltd (DSKDL) and disbursed amounts under the garb of loans to the company,” said deputy commissioner of police Sudhir Hiremath, who heads the EOW.

DSK and wife Hemanti were arrested in February while his son Shirish faces arrest as the Supreme Court has refused to extend his anticipatory bail plea.

In giving loans to the DSK group companies, the officials had violated the norms of BoM and Reserve Bank of India. DSK and his companies face at least five FIRs in Mumbai, Pune and Kolhapur.