The Mumbai Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested a former manager of Santa Cruz branch of Bombay Mercantile Cooperative Bank for allegedly duping a 48-year-old woman of '65 lakh. The woman had come to invest her money in Fixed Deposit (FD) but the accused misled her into taking a scheme which cost her that amount.
The accused (name withheld by EOW) worked for the bank between 2004 and 2010. Later, when the bank learnt about his activities, including the one where the complainant was duped, he was dismissed from service. In 2007, the woman Presila Katva was misled by the accused into investing '1.31 crore in “Over Draft of Fixed Deposit (ODFD)”. Ms Katva had amassed the amount by selling her property and the property of her close kin. The bank manager told her that she would get only 9 per cent interest by investing in FD but he could give her an interest rate of 18 per cent i.e. double if she invested in ODFD.
The bank manager knew which clients had a hefty balance as well as those who needed loans. He gave loans at interest rates of 26 per cent with a view to getting high commission from the loan seekers. Similarly, he gave Ms Katva’s money as loan to four different parties and one of them, a businessman selling raw material for jeans, was unable to repay. The bank manager asked the businessman to give his raw material to Ms Katva instead. Even after that, '65 lakh could not be returned to Ms Katva who then approached the Santa Cruz police.
A FIR was registered on February 21, 2014 under Sections 409 and 420 of IPC and later transferred to EOW. The accused was arrested last week and is in EOW’s custody till Friday. The accused’s four brothers are bank managers too. Assistant police inspector Kiran Jadhav is probing the case.
