5 arrested for embezzling Rs 16 crore of co-op bank

Five persons, including the chairman, director and former chairman of the Alwar Urban Cooperative Bank, were arrested today by the Rajasthan Special Operation Group here for allegedly embezzling over Rs 16 crore.
"The accused embezzled Rs 15.14 crore before demonetisation and also, through various means, exchanged their own Rs 97 lakh for new notes that was provided to the Alwar Urban Cooperative Bank for public use," ADG SOG Umesh Mishra said here.
The alleged mastermind Abhishek Joshi (28), who holds no post in the bank, his father Ashok Joshi, who is also the bank's director, were arrested, he said
Besides, Abhishek's younger brother Mridul Joshi who is the bank's chairman was also arrested, along with the bank's CEO Mahesh Mudgal and former chairman Omprakash Saini, the ADG said.

"The Rs 97 lakh exchanged by the accused was from the Rs 1.38 crore in new currency notes given to the bank to facilitate exchange of demonetised banknotes being deposited by people," he said.
Investigations started in the case after the Alwar Police seized Rs 1.32 crore -- in denominations of Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50, Rs 100, Rs 2,000, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes -- from stakeholders of the bank when they were taking the amount to Delhi from Alwar last month, the ADG said.

"The Jaipur IG, suspecting a big scam, informed the SOG and the case was transferred to us. It was revealed that Rs 16.11 crore was embezzled," he said.

"The accused opened 92 fake accounts in the bank and Rs 8.28 crore were given to the fake account holders as loans. Abhishek, also in connivance with the bank manager, withdrew Rs 4.75 crore deposited in a public sector bank. However, there was no record of it being deposited with the cooperative bank. Another Rs 2.11 crore of the bank was transferred online to different accounts," the ADG said.
"Abhishek had given a bribe of Rs 1 crore to the bank's former chairman Omprakash Saini and its board members to quit so that Mridul could get elected as the bank's chairman in May, even though he was ineligible for the post," Mishra said.

The ADG said Abhishek had also managed to get his family members into the bank's board so that funds could be siphoned-off easily.
The matter is being probed and seizure is yet to be made by the SOG, he said.