Four Former Maratha Bank Officials Booked in Rs 4.15 Crore Loan Fraud
The Vile Parle police have registered a first information report against four former employees of Maratha Co-operative Bank, including its former chief executive officer, for allegedly embezzling Rs 4.15 crore by sanctioning bogus loans to 210 individuals and diverting the funds. The branch involved was located in Vile Parle East before later shifting to Andheri East.
The accused have been identified as Ramesh Shirgaonkar, the then CEO; Dashrath Naik, the then chief manager; Vaishali Mayekar, the then loan department manager; and Gopal Parab, the then manager of the branch. The alleged fraud, which took place between 2003 and 2006, came to light following the bank's merger with Cosmos Bank, ordered by the Reserve Bank of India in May 2023 due to non-recovery of loans.
According to the FIR, assistant manager Surba Sawant, 64, first noticed loan defaults in 2016. When the bank issued recovery notices, they were returned because the borrowers did not reside at the recorded addresses. Some individuals contacted by bank officials stated that they had never applied for or received any loans from the bank.
A subsequent scrutiny revealed that loans were falsely sanctioned to 210 persons. Among them, Rs 2.47 crore was disbursed to 126 individuals listed as employees of Indian Paramedical Company, while Rs 1.68 crore was given to 84 individuals shown as employees of People Paramedical Company. Investigators established that none of the borrowers had ever worked for these companies and that their identity cards, salary slips, and salary letters with fake stamps were forged. Borrowers and guarantors had also stood surety for one another.
The 126 loans were shown as home renovation borrowings based on quotations from Western Construction Engineers and Contractors in Andheri, while the remaining 84 loans were based on quotations from Laxmi Interiors and Decorators in Dombivli.
All borrowers opened accounts on the same day, with an individual named Atul Shirodkar signing the application forms as a bank member. Following the disbursal of funds, Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 was withdrawn in cash, 5% was transferred into fixed deposits, and the remaining balance was issued through banker's pay orders bearing only Parab's signature before being handed over to Shirodkar. Sawant, currently serving as an officer on special duty with Cosmos Bank, lodged the formal complaint.
