Charotar Bank MD to surrender

The managing director of the beleaguered Charotar Nagarik Sahakari Bank and former BJP member of Parliament Deepak Patel will surrender before the police, following the dismissal of a special leave petition by the Supreme Court on December 10.

The Anand town police are yet to receive the order to arrest Patel and his brothers.

Patel owes over Rs 11 crore to Charotar Bank. The family members of Patel also owe about Rs 21 crore to the bank.

Patel had borrowed Rs 5 crore from the bank for upgrading machinery at his newspaper Naya Padkar, a leading local daily, and did not repay the amount.

The Patel family had allegedly issued loans of large amounts to their friends and relatives against inappropriate mortgages.

Patel and his family are considered to be the prime suspect in the Rs 76 crore scam.

"I will surrender before the police in a couple of days. I am ready to face the charges framed against me and I also agree with the proceedings of the liquidator of the bank. My family have already declared and surrendered their assets to the court. I want to repay my outstandings by selling my properties and want to comply the terms and conditions read out by the apex court," said Patel to Business Standard.

"I do not want be known as an absconder ," added Patel.

Patel and his brothers Prakash Patel and Bharat Patel had been successful in avoiding arrests by commitments of repayments to the courts.

The Patels had also gone underground before availing of bails. At present the liquidator of the bank is searching for other properties owned by the Patel family in case they have not declared it.

"We are searching for the properties owned by th Patels apart from what they have declared as the estimated value of the surrendered property including the newspaper press, which is not more than Rs 5 crore. Patel owes over Rs 11 crore and his family members over Rs 21 crore," said I P Joshi, liquidator of Charotar Bank.

The Supreme Court had dismissed the petition filed by senior advocate Arun Jaitely on behalf of Patel and his brothers on December 10.

Charotar Bank, with 12 branches and about Rs 300 crore deposits, went bust in early 2002.