Nagpur court remands ex-Cong MLA Ashok Dhawad in Navodaya bank fraud

A special court on Wednesday remanded a former Congress MLA in police custody until November 13 in connection with the Rs 38.75 crore alleged loan disbursal fraud in a cooperative bank. The former legislator Ashok Dhawad, also chairman of the Navodaya Urban Co-operative Bank, had surrendered himself before police on Monday, following which he was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing. The Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors (MPID) Act court judge Sunil Patil remanded Dhawad in police custody for a period of one week on Wednesday. Inspector Prashant Mane of EOW said Dhawad would be interrogated over his alleged involvement in the fraud.

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Former board of directors, office-bearers, and some borrowers of the bank were booked by Dhantoli Police in Nagpur in May this year under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for cheating and criminal breach of trust besides under the MPID Act and Information Technology Act. They are accused of sanctioning unsecured loans between 2010 and 2017, Mane said. "The accused had allegedly returned the original documents of the properties mortgaged with the bank as well as the No Objection Certificates (NOCs) to those who have failed to repay loan," he said. The police officer also listed preparing fake registration documents among other irregularities allegedly committed by the accused.

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The Reserve Bank had cancelled the licence of the bank on October 8 last year under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949. Another EOW official said the erstwhile board of directors and some office-bearers allegedly tampered with the computer records to show that the loan was disbursed to genuine borrowers. "Prima facie, they defrauded the genuine investors to the tune of Rs 38.75 crore," he said.

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