Depositors worried about their money

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

The Cidco police booked the chief director of Adarsh Urban Co-operative Credit Society Ambadas Abaji Mankape, the entire board of directors and the debtors in a loan scam of around Rs 202 crore on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the account holders, depositors, and others gathered at the Adarsh credit society and expressed their agony over the scam. They demanded that their money should be returned to them immediately. Two different cases were registered in this matter. Meanwhile, PI Sambhaji Pawar of Cidco police station is further investigating the case.

The depositors claimed that they had deposited their hard-earned money in society, but the directors embezzled it. Many of them are retired employees and a situation has arisen to sustain by begging, they claimed.

On Wednesday afternoon, PI Sambhaji Pawar went to the society and interrogated the manager. When he came out of the office, the depositors surrounded him. They inquired him whether they will get their money back. He convinced them that they should lodge a complaint with the police station and the police are searching for the absconding directors now. However, the president of the society or the directors did not go to the credit society.

A senior citizen Shrinivas Totla said we opened an account with the society as they were giving more interest on the deposits. Hence, we deposited our hard-earned money, but we were betrayed. What can we do in this old age now, he said.

The collection agent Krishna Godse said that he worked as a collection agent for the credit society. He himself has deposited Rs 3 lakh in his account and also deposited around Rs 1.25 lakh from the depositors. Now, the depositors are pursuing me for their money.

An account holder Afrin Majid Syed said, she, her mother and other relatives have accounts in the society and they all have deposited around Rs 16 lakh.

What is the scam?

The credit society under the Adarsh Group distributed loans to around 15 institutions, relatives and others. The loans were distributed without mortgages, guarantors and on the basis of fake mortgages and members. Rs 103,16,73,381 were distributed between 2016 and 2019. Rs 99,07,90,579 were distributed between 2019 and 2023.

The directors of the bank illegally distributed loans to the tune of crores of rupees to their favoured persons without following the rules or taking any kind of mortgage. The scam came to the fore after the audit of the society for the period 2016 to 2023. There has been complaints of embezzlement in the society for the past six months. A special audit for the period 2016 and 2023 was conducted by auditor Dhananjay Chavan as per the order of the district deputy registrar (co-operative institutes). In the audit, several misappropriations were reported. It was found that the board of directors distributed loans to the tune of Rs 202 crore to ineligible applicants without following the loan procedures and taking mortgages.

Accused in the case

The accused in both the cases are Ambadas Abaji Mankape (N-6), Mahendra Jagdish Deshmukh (Mahajan Colony), Bhausaheb Malhar Mogal (Nilajgaon), Trambak Sheshrao Pathade (Varzadi), Ramsingh Mansingh Jadhav (Girnar Tanda), Ganesh Tarachand Daulatpure (Chetananagar), Lalita Ramesh Moon (Ekod Pachod), Sapna Nirmal Sanjay (N-3), Premila Maniklal Jaiswal (Apatgaon), chief manager Devidas Sakharam Adhane (Navjeevan Colony) and Pandit Bajirao Kapte (Hudco) and Anil Mankape.

Cases under various sections

The office of the registrar lodged a complaint with the Cidco police station. As per the directives of CP Manoj Lohiya and DCP Sheelwant Nandedkar, PI Sambhaji Pawar registered cases under various sections of Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors (MPID) and IPC sections 120 B, 217, 34, 406, 409, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 and others.