Rs 22 Cr scam: arrested chief manager gets PCR

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Chief Manager of Devai Mahila Nagri Sahakari Patsanstha Arun Dattupant Purnapatre who arrived in the city for probe of Rs 22 crore scam was arrested on Monday.

It may be noted that the scam of Rs 22 crore surfaced in the cooperative credit society in September. Since then, the chairman of the credit society Meena Mahadeo Kakde and its executive director Mahadeo Achyutrao Kakde have been at large. The probe is being conducted for the past many days.

Chief Manager of the society Arun Purnapatre (53, Mhada Colony, Cidco) arrived at the commissionerate for the probe on Monday. He was arrested after his probe was over.

Meena Kakde was elected chairman of the Society in 2021. She appointed her husband Mahadeo as executive director. However, the remaining committee members and office-bearers were not appointed.

The cooperative credit society disbursed the loan without verifying documents and made no efforts for the recovery of the loan. Another amount of Rs 8 crore was siphoned off by showing investment in another bank. They also took a loan of Rs 13.83 crore without any mortgage on the basis of bogus documents.

Two loans of Rs 2.10 crore and Rs 1 crore were taken out in the name of KMK Pvt Ltd on March 31, 2023. Police also found that the application form submitted for the loans was incomplete.

Kakde couple ran away when the scam of a total amount of Rs 21.91 crore surfaced.

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No evidence of fleeing abroad

A case was registered on September 29. Police inspector of Economic Ofference Wing (EOW) Sambhaji Pawar and assistant PI Suresh Thorat were probing the matter.

The enquiry of the board of directors, secretary and members of Devai Mahila Nagri Sahakari Patsanstha was underway. There are signatures of Purnapatre on all the decisions of the society. Meanwhile, there was speculation that the Kakde couple ran away abroad. The information was sought from the department concerned, through correspondence, about their travel. Sambhajin Pawar said that no record of their foreign tour was found.

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Police custody up to Dec 2

Chief manager of the credit society Arun Purnapatre was arrested on Monday.

Police produced Purnapatre before sessions’ court judge N S Momin who remanded him police custody up to December 2. Police arrested the accountant of the credit society Raosaheb Chouthe earlier. Its directors disbursed Rs 13.83 crore loan to their bogus organisations while Rs 8 crore was kept as a fixed deposit in a private bank. A case was registered with Satara Police Station against the board of directors, manager and other employees of the credit on September 29 for the fraud of Rs 21.91 crore. Since it is a big scam, the case was handed over to the EOW.