Missing At New India Cooperative Bank: Rs 122 Crore, Mumbai Police Arrests Ex-GM

The Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai police on Saturday arrested Hitesh Mehta, a former general manager of New India Cooperative Bank, for allegedly siphoning off Rs 122 crore from the bank. The arrest followed after the police filed a first information report in the case, using a complaint filed by another official of the cooperative bank.

Mehta was brought to the EOW office on Saturday, where officials would question him about the missing funds. The case came to light after Reserve Bank of India officials conducted a spot inspection at various offices of New India Cooperative Bank on Wednesday and Thursday.

During the inspection, the regulatory officers noted the missing funds in the bank's vaults, after which, they instructed the cooperative lender's Acting Chief Accounts Officer Devarshi Shishirkumar Ghosh to file a police complaint, according to the FIR copy reviewed by NDTV Profit.

Separately the RBI also announced stringent moratorium on New India Cooperative Bank with effect from Thursday. Depositors of the cooperative bank were temporarily restricted from accessing their deposits. Typically when RBI places a bank under moratorium, eligible depositors with insured deposits worth up to Rs 5 lakh are assured repayment through the Deposit Insurance Credit Guarantee Corporation.

On Friday, RBI announced that it will supersede the bank's board and appointed former State Bank of India Chief General Manager Shreekant as an administrator. The RBI-appointed administrator would be supported with a two member advisory committee which was also constituted by the regulator.