Mumbai: A sessions court refused to grant interim relief from arrest to former CEO of the New India Co-operative Bank Ltd, Abhimanyu Bhoan, in the bank scam case. The city’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had registered a case of cheating and criminal breach of trust against Percept Ltd founder-director Harinder Pal Singh, New India Co-operative Bank former chairman Hiren Bhanu and his wife Gauri, bank’s former CEO Abhimayu Bhoan, Ranjit Bhanu (deceased) and five others for allegedly causing a loss of around Rs 25 crore to the bank between 2014 and 2023.This is the second FIR registered against the Bhanus and Bhoan. In Feb, a case was filed against the Bhanus, Bhoan and seven others after RBI officials found Rs 122 crore cash missing from the cooperative bank. According to the fresh FIR, Bhanu and a few bank officials had sanctioned a loan of Rs 77 crore to Percept Group, a media and entertainment firm. Police claimed that Bhanu, who was then also the director of Hermis group of companies, received nearly Rs 6.4 crore from Percept as kickbacks, which was shown as business dealings with the Percept Group using fake invoices.It was alleged that while Percept claimed it could not repay the loan, and Bhanu, then the chairman of New India Co-operative Bank, and others granted it a waiver of Rs 18.6 crore. The police said the fraud took place between Sept 3, 2014 and Oct 19, 2023. The FIR was registered at Dadar police station, and the probe was later taken over by EOW.Rejecting the plea for interim relief, the judge said that the allegation in the earlier FIR is to the extent of receiving Rs 1 crore by Bhoan from the Rs 127 crore allegedly siphoned by co-accused Hitesh Mehta. “… loan transaction of Rs 49 crore was settled by applicant and the office-bearers of Board of Directors of the bank for Rs 34 crore and waived Rs 18 crore causing wrongful loss of such amount to the bank. Considering nature of the transaction and relations of applicant with the directors of Percept Companies…, I am of the view that, applicant is not entitled for interim relief,” the judge said.
