Nagpur Mahila Bank's top brass booked

The entire board of the ailing Nagpur Nagarik Mahila Sahakari Bank has been booked by the city police under charges of cheating and criminal breach of trust. The bank was taken over by an administrator of the state cooperative department last year.

The police registered offences against the board members on the basis of a complaint lodged by auditors A P Pimpalkhede and Company. The booking of the bank brass comes on the heels of the arrest of Hemani couple - Aman and Rajshree Hemani - who are alleged to have duped the bank of Rs 2.85 crore.

The high flying couple, who also used various aliases such as Allamin Kamruddin Hemani and Hujefa Abbasbhai Arsiwala, were arrested by the state crime branch at Pune. They were on the run for over an year. The couple had floated several companies in Nagpur and projected themselves as well-established entrepreneurs with interests in soft drinks, ready-made garments, paints, chemicals and real estate.

They had appointed dealers for their products across the state and also claimed that much of their production was being marketed overseas. The police believe that several commercial banks with limited exposure have written off loans as they were sanctioned without following proper procedures.

The Mahila Bank was duped in a spectacular manner with the Hemani couple getting the board sanction overdrafts worth crores when their credit limit was just a few lakh.

In addition, they arranged for an account with Dena Bank at Bhilai in the name of Kishor Nimje, one of their employee and confidante, through a Bhilai-based chartered accountant-Rakesh Prithviraj Dhody.

The chartered accountant had, in fact, used an acquaintance's signature on the introductory form, giving the impression that he was himself interested in opening the account. A current account in the name of K N Enterprises was also opened at the same bank with Nimje being the sole operator of the account.

The police found that the Hemani couple used the "anywhere banking facility" offered by banks to get their cheques cleared locally and credited them to Nimje's account at Bhilai. The cheques eventually landed up with the Mahila Bank where they were discounted as the Hemani Group appeared to be doing extremely well.

Commissioner of Police SPS Yadav has confirmed that offences have been registered against the chairperson of the bank, Suvarnarekha Chandurkar, and board members Sunanda Barlingey, Sujata Kale, Kalpana Nandeshwar, S Kashikar, Usha Kumar, U Gaheshwar, M Warhadpande, A Joshi, Pramil Asolkar and Kavita Mundle. A fresh case has also been registered against Aman and Rajshree Hemani.

A special team to assist additional commissioner of police (crime) Dalbir Bharati, who is investigating the case, has also been formed. The team comprises deputy commissioner of police Amitesh Kumar, police inspectors Datta Pawar and T K Roy of the Crime Branch. The police suspect more skeletons to tumble out as the Hemani couple have been remanded to police custody.

The Hemanis allegedly held back 130 cheques worth Rs 10 crore and got them discounted for Rs 4.56 crore from the Mahila Bank. Two officials of Dena Bank were also picked up by the police along with Dhody for their compliance in the fraud.

Police said the Hemanis impressed top officials of the Mahila Bank's board into giving them favourable treatment.

Most of their loans, running into several crores, were found to have been taken on the basis of fraudulent documents, and in some cases on the basis of rented property as security.

In other cases, the same property was used as collateral with different banks and the collective value of the loans far exceeded the actual worth of the property.