Lodge FIR in Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank scam in five days: Bombay high court

MUMBAI: Bombay high court directed the economic offences wing (EOW) on Thursday to register within five days an FIR in the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank embezzlement scam.
NCP’s Ajit Pawar and former NCP netas Vijaysingh Mohite-Patil and Anandrao Adsul are among the bank directors accused of swindling it of thousands of crores.

A bench of Justices Satyaranjan Dharmadhikari and Sandeep Shinde passed its verdict in a PIL by activist Surinder Arora seeking that an FIR be lodged in the case.
Nabard’s audit report had revealed a breach of banking laws and RBI regulations by the directors who distributed loans to their sugar factories, spinning mills and other units between 2005 and 2010.
In January 2018, the high court directed EOW to record Arora’s complaint. A year later, his advocate Satish Talekar told the high court on July 26, 2019, that nothing was done. The judges then summoned EOW DCP Shrikant Paropkari on July 31. The DCP orally stated that no cognisable offence is made out.
The bench, in its verdict dictated by Justice Shinde, noted that there was nothing on record to show a preliminary inquiry was carried out. The judges said the foundation of the complaint is Nabard’s inspection report which is statutory in nature. But, they said, the DCP did not mention if he had perused the statement of bank employees made to the Nabard inspection team.
Slamming the EOW, the judges said the case is not of inaction of the police but refusal to register the FIR.
They noted the inspection report points out irregularities committed by the bank and its directors and also how they sanctioned illegal loans or sold out the bank’s properties at throwaway prices contrary to norms.
The judges said perusal of inspection and inquiry reports “discloses the commission of cognisable offences punishable under IPC and other penal laws”. They added that “thereafter all steps in accordance with law be taken uninfluenced by oral assertions of Shri Paropkari”.