New India Co-operative Bank Scam: Former Chairman Hiren Bhanu has found Hitesh Mehta guilty

Mumbai, April 7 (IANS). A new turn came to light in the new Indian cooperative banking fraud. Former bank chairman Hiren Bhanu, in a statement to the branch of the Economic Missions of Mumbai (Eow) Economic Missions, convicted the senior banking officer and arrested the accused Hitesh Mehta for scam. Bhanu says that Mehta participated directly in the eclipse of Rs 122 crore and that he himself accepted full responsibility in this case. Once the scam was unveiled, the allegations against former bank chairman Hiren Bhanu were made that he participated in the darkened amount. However, Bhanu denied these allegations. He claims to have lived abroad for the past thirty years and his wife Gauri Bhanu, who is currently the acting president of the bank, has not went abroad because of any scam, but traveled with him. Hiren Bhanu also said that his wife’s plan to visit Thailand had already been corrected and that there was no irregularity in it. Bhanu also said that when RBI officials reached the bank’s headquarters in Prabhadevi, Mehta himself called him and admitted to doing the scam. Mehta acknowledged that he had raised money for the past five years. Bhanu said that a director was also appointed by the RBI for the bank, which was part of the council, at this time and was also included in the bank’s audit committee. Bhanu has made it clear that the RBI has been monitoring the bank over the past four years and the responsibility of the head of the bank’s internal audit department was to recommend the appointment of all external auditors. In addition, Bhanu also said that no audit report has been found in the last five years. Therefore, the Board of Directors and the Bank’s chairman and vice president could never be aware of the disappearance of any cash. On February 11, RBI officials came to the bank to gather all the senior officials in the boardroom, but Mehta disappeared from the bank during that time. The RBI sent to the bank officials at 14:30 asking why Rs 122 crore disappeared. The bank management had no information on this because it was the Department of Mehta and disappeared. Mehta later approached Bhanu and herself admitted to having money and is fully responsible for the crime. Bhanu asked Mehta to return to the bank and accept his error in front of RBI officials. According to Bhanu, Mehta acknowledged that he had given Rs 70 crore to a building in Dahisar and was also informed of large quantities with other six people. However, Bhanu claimed that Mehta did not pay him 26 crore. Bhanu also denied that a lie -catching test was done on Mehta and that the results were negative. He also asked the question of why no one noticed the fraud, despite the monitoring of the RBI, which caused doubt or more people were involved in the scam. In this case, further investigation is investigating and the police have all the call logs and other important evidence in this regard. According to police, they are investigating the matter deeply and will take all possible steps to get the culprits strict punishment. -Ians PSK/CBT Share this story Tags