The district court remanded four, including Samta Sahakari Bank Chairman Dinkar Chimukar, Nirmal Ujwal Chairman Pramod Manmode, Samta Bank Senior Director Anant Brahme and Sanjay
Deshpande, a branch manager of Samata Sahakari Bank, to five days' police custody till June 2.
The four were charged with cheating, forgery and misappropriation of funds under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code. The prosecution cited several instances of glaring discrepancies, where unsecured loans were granted by alleged misuse of power.
These loans include Rs 5.55 crore advanced to Amanraj Hemani, the chairman of a local company, who is currently behind bars for defrauding the Mahila Sahakari Bank and other institutions. The Mahila Sahakari Bank went bankrupt a few years ago.
Manmode is alleged to have secured loans worth Rs 80 lakh from Samta Sahakari Bank and is alleged to have diverted the funds to the accounts of other local companies and some non-existing people.
Jayant Shringarpure, the additional public prosecutor, told the court that Chimurkar was instrumental in sanctioning unsecured loans to the tune of Rs 103 crore to some parties in total violation of the RBI guidelines.
The Rs 145-crore Samata Sahakari Bank scam came to light after an audit was conducted by RBI in August 2006. RBI had imposed a moratorium on the bank and restricted withdrawals up to Rs 1,000.
The cooperative bank went bankrupt on August 5, 2006.
