New India scam case: EOW probes discrepancies amid low cash safe retention limit

The Economic Offences Wings EOW probe into the Rs 122crore New India Cooperative Bank embezzlement case has found that the lender had retention limit of Rs 20 crore for the cash safe though the books showed the amount to be Rs 133 crore an police officer said on FridayThe physical check of the safe showed the amount in it to be lesser than the stipulated retention limit of Rs 20 crore reported news agency PTIThe banks former general manager GM and head of accounts Hitesh Mehta its former Chief Executive Officer CEO Abhimanyu Bhoan and real estate developer Dharmesh Paun have been arrested in the case so farThe three were remanded in EOW custody till February 28 by a local court where they were produced during the day PTI reportedAs per documents the retention limit of the banks safe was fixed in 2017 at Rs 20 crore This limit was never increased by the bank Reserve Bank of India officials who had checked the safe found Rs 122 crore missing A probe is also underway to find out if the safe has the capacity to hold such a huge amount at one time the officer saidThe EOW is also probing why discrepancies in actual cash available in the bank and its safes as well those mentioned in the books were not pointed out during inspections PTI reportedNew India Cooperative Bank scam Probing if exCEO received kickbacks from other accusedThe probe has found that Mehta used to call staffers to bring cash from the safe some of which he used to keep himself with the amounts in the range of Rs 50 lakh Rs 1 crore and Rs 2 crore he saidWe are probing if Bhoan who was arrested late Thursday night received kickbacks from the other accused Bhoan was CEO of the bank from 2019 to 2024 and was the immediate supervisory officer of Hitesh Mehta The bank had sent a proposal in September 2024 to RBI to extend the tenure of Bhoan This was rejected by the RBI the officer informedAccording to the officer Bhoan was CEO till January after which he went on sick leave and was then relieved from the post on February 6 The analysis of the balance sheet for 201920 period showed huge transactions had taken place at the bank Bhoan who was the link between the Board of Directors and branches has denied he was aware of cash in the bank the officer informed adding that Bhoan as CEO of the bank must have been aware of these transactionsThe officer also stated that Abhijeet Deshmukh part of the chartered accountancy firm that conducted audits for the bank was questioned on Friday evening as wellEarlier in the day the police while seeking remand of Mehta Paun and Bhoan in the New India Cooperative Bank scam case had told the court that probe was required in connection with the huge amount of documents related to the caseIt also told court that Mehta and Paun need to be confronted with BhoanThe case was registered at Dadar Police Station on February 15 after the banks acting CEO Devarshi Ghosh filed a complaint The probe was then transferred to the EOWMehta and the other accused have been charged under sections 316 5 criminal breach of trust by public servants bankers and others in positions of trust and 612 criminal conspiracy of Bharatiya Nyaya SanhitaThe alleged misappropriation of funds from the safes of the banks offices in Prabhadevi and Goregaon came to light following an inspection by the Reserve Bank of IndiaWith PTI inputs