100 Rupee Bank ‘defaulters’ named

The Punekar Nagrik Kruti Samiti on Monday put out a list of 100 alleged defaulters of the Rupee Bank. The Samiti claimed that the co-operative bank, which is under administrative rule, has been waiving off interest on loans that run into crores to politically powerful defaulters. The Samiti named the Dhariwal Group of Companies among others who have been beneficiaries of the bank’s ‘generosity’. However, the cooperative commissioner said that the waivers could have carried been out according to existing guidelines. “If the loan is huge, waiving off Rs 3 or 5 crore is acceptable,” he said. Also, the state has drafted a plan to save the bank from liquidation.

Meanwhile, former minister for cooperatives Chandrakant Patil has said if the bank recovers more than Rs 400 crore from defaulters, the state would provide Rs 100 crore as a soft loan to save it.

Rupee Bank has been reeling under losses of more than Rs 600 crore, according to a special audit report, and the Reserve Bank of India had restricted its business in 2003. The cooperative department had fixed the responsibility of recovering Rs 1,490 crore from the 34 then-directors of the bank and 40 bank officials for running the bank into losses.

According to Mihir Thatte, president of Punekar Nagrik Kruti Samiti, the bank has more than seven lakh depositors and they have lost their investments. “The then-directors had sanctioned loans to people including politicians, businessman and builders without mortgaging the appropriate property, which has resulted in a huge losses, and now the bank is on the verge of liquidation,” said Mr Thatte.

“The directors are responsible for turning a profit-making bank weak and lakhs of depositors are suffering. We are not being allowed to withdraw our own money,” said Mr Thatte, adding that on Monday the committee had released the names and photos of 100 big defaulters and put up hoardings at prime locations in the city.

He claimed that Dhariwal group, which owns the ‘Manikchand’ brand, had been given an interest waiver worth Rs 5 crore while a builder received a Rs 3-crore interest waiver. However, nobody from the Dhariwal Group was available for comment.

Meanwhile, Chandakant Dalvi, commissioner of the cooperatives department, said that once an administrator is appointed to a bank, it is his duty and right to recover dues from a defaulter. He added that it might be possible that the defaulters had to pay huge loans and hence Rs 5 crore, a comparatively smaller amount, was waived. “The bank administrator has announced a one-time settlement scheme, according to which, loans will be relaxed,” said a Rupee Bank official, on condition on anonymity.