Auditor Chawthe gets bail in credit society scam

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Justice Santosh Chapalgaonkar from the Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court on Tuesday granted a regular bail to Raosaheb Chawthe who was a certified auditor of Devai Mahila Nagari Sahakari Patsanstha in which crores rupees loan disbursement scam was surfaced.

The office-bearers and employees of the cooperative credit society were booked for disbursing Rs 13.83 crore bogus loan and cash of Rs 2.50 crore. He did an audit of the credit society for the financial year 2021-22. The auditor was arrested on October 16, 2023.

The Session’s Court had rejected the bail application of Chawthe on November 3. He filed a bail plea in the HC through adv Sambhaji Tope. Adv Tope brought to the notice of the court that as per the provisions in the Maharashtra Cooperation Societies Act 1960, the accused was appointed certified auditor of the credit society for a certain period.

The lawyer informed the court that Chawthe was not an employee of the Cooperative Department and he had submitted the audit report to the district deputy registrar (cooperatives) of the district yearly.

In the audit report, he mentioned the function of the credit society with shortcomings. The auditor accorded a grade-C in the audit. Adv Tope informed the court that there is a provision for imposing a fine in the Cooperative Societies norms for negligence. Additional Government Pleader Anand Shinde represented the Government.