Pune Police Book Saraswat Bank Chairman Gautam Thakur, MD Smita Sandhane, 6 Others in Cheating Case

Mumbai, December 27: The Pune Police on Monday booked eight officials of the Saraswat Bank, including its chairman Gautam Thakur and managing director Smita Sandhane, in an alleged cheating case.

However, the largest cooperative lender described the development as an attempt to prevent confiscation of properties of a defaulting borrower Orange Medicare and Research Centre. Also Read | COVID-19 Vaccination for Teenagers: Only Covaxin To Be Administered to Children Aged 15-18 Years, Says Centre.

The bank in a statement claimed its top officials were booked by the Kothrud police station on Monday after a director of Orange Medicare in the city -- Smeeta Sameer Patil -- filed an FIR earlier in the day after a tahsildar ordered confiscation of mortgaged hospital property “with a view to prevent the bank from taking over the mortgaged property”. Also Read | Assembly Elections 2022: Centre Advises Poll-Bound States To Speedily Ramp Up COVID-19 Vaccination.

"We have been trying to recover our legitimate dues, and we will not succumb to such pressure tactics but will pursue all legal remedies to take possession of the property from the defaulter who owes around Rs 16 crore, along with updated interest," it said.

The bank said it initiated recovery measures after the borrower failed to honour the one-time settlement and also its part-payment cheque worth Rs 3.6 crore has bounced. Denying the allegations in the FIR, the bank said it will take every step to defend its action, its officials and take this case to its logical end.

The majority shareholder of the hospital, Smeeta Patil has alleged in the FIR, which was filed after a city court issued an order to that effect earlier in the day, that the bank has opened a bogus account and defrauded Rs 2.5 crore of her company.

However, the bank's managing director Sandhane told PTI that the allegation is a misrepresentation of the facts as the said account is not bogus but a parking account or suspended account under RBI norms -- which is done in every OTS-bound accounts and is opened in the name of the borrower only. The account had and still has the said Rs 2.5 crore paid by the founding directors, she added.

Cooperative banks have been facing many challenges including serious misgovernance issues forcing the RBI to suspend or cancel licences of dozens of them in the past two years alone, with the PMC Bank being the biggest of them.

Started in 1918, Saraswat Bank claims to be the largest urban co-operative bank with operations in Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka. It has a business of over Rs 67,000 crore and runs over 280 branches.

Orange Medicare & Research Centre was launched by five doctors in 2011 on a project loan from Saraswat Bank. But they could not complete the project in time and citing cost over-run they took an additional loan in 2013.

Even by 2016, the project was not complete and the bank declared it an NPA. Following this in 2017 the founding directors sold 71 per cent of their stake to the Sameer Patil Group and inducted Smeeta Patil as a director, who filed the FIR earlier in the day, which was soon after the tahsildar allowed the bank to take over the property, the bank said.

After this change of ownership they cleared only the over dues and left the principal unpaid and the account was upgraded as a standard one. But soon they again failed to honour the repayment commitment and the account was classified again as NPA and securitisation proceedings were initiated in 2017.

In 2018 the Pune district magistrate allowed the bank to take over the property following which the borrower gave a cheque of Rs 3.66 crore along with a proposal for one-time settlement. Following this the bank delayed taking over the property. But the Rs 3.66 crore cheque bounced, forcing the bank issue a notice under section 138 of the Negotiable Instrument Act to the borrower.

Following this Orange Medicare unsuccessfully tried to file a contempt petition in the Bombay High Court. Other bank officials who are booked include chief manager Anand Chalke, zonal managers Pallavi Sali and Ratnakar Prabhakar, and Abhishek Bhagat, the Vishrantwadi branch manager from where the loan was issued, and others.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)