Bank of Maharashtra CEO Marathe arrested in Rs 2,000-cr fraud case

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, June 20

The Economic Offences Wing of the Pune Police on Wednesday arrested Ravindra Marathe, CEO and Managing Director, Bank of Maharashtra, and his predecessor Sushil Muhnot for allegedly colluding with builder D S Kulkarni in fraud case involving more than Rs 2,000 crore.

According to police sources, Marathe was arrested from Pune while Muhnot was held in Jaipur. Several others, including Rajendra Gupta, Executive Director, Bank of Maharashtra, Nityanand Deshpande, Zonal Manager Bank of Maharashtra, have also been arrested. Officials from Kulkarni’s DSK Developers Ltd, including its chartered accountant Sunil Ghatpande and vice-president, engineering Rajiv Newaskar, have also been arrested, police said.

All have been charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption under various laws, police said.

The builder D S Kulkarni and his wife Hemanti are already under arrest and lodged at Pune’s Yerwada Jail. Kulkarni’s son Shirish from his first wife and other relatives have also been arrested for
defrauding home buyers who had booked flats in several projects of the company.

As per the initial information available from the EOW, the bank officials are suspected of illegally sanctioning loans worth crores of rupees to DS Kulkarni Developers Ltd.

The arrests came after a local RTI activist, Vijay Kumbhar, sought details of the loans sanctioned to the developer. Kumbhar told reporters in Pune that Bank of Maharashtra officials had sanctioned
loans to the builder without adequate documentation.

As per the chargesheet submitted by the EOW in a Pune court, the DSK group may have defrauded home buyers and investors to the tune of Rs 2043 crores.

Police sources say, that verification of various collateral submitted by the DSK group to obtain bank loans has resulted in the detection of the bank fraud. Fresh cases are likely to be filed against the Kulkarni family and the bankers, police sources said.

More than 12,000 home buyers, investors and depositors have been duped by the company. Police say, as many as 8,000 senior citizens may have lost their life-savings after investing in DSK’s fixed deposit.

Predecessor held too

• Bank CMD Ravindra Marathe’s predecessor Sushil Muhnot and four others have also been arrested 
• Those arrested have been accused of colluding with a builder in the Rs 2,000 crore fraud case
• The bank officials allegedly sanctioned loans worth crores of rupees to the builder in an illegal manner