Mumbai, Feb 21 (PTI) The Economic Offences Wing's probe into the Rs 122 crore New India Cooperative Bank embezzlement case has found that the lender had retention limit of Rs 20 crore for the cash safe though the books showed the amount to be Rs 133 crore, an official said on Friday.

The physical check of the safe showed the amount in it to be lesser than the stipulated retention limit of Rs 20 crore, he added.

The bank's general manager and head of accounts Hitesh Mehta, its former CEO Abhimanyu Bhoan and real estate developer Dharmesh Paun have been arrested in the case so far.

The three were remanded in EOW custody till February 28 by a local court where they were produced during the day.

"As per documents, the retention limit of the bank's safe was fixed in 2017 at Rs 20 crore. This limit was never increased by the bank. Reserve Bank of India officials who had checked the safe found Rs 122 crore missing. A probe is also underway to find out if the safe has the capacity to hold such a huge amount at one time," the official said.

The EOW is also probing why discrepancies in actual cash available in the bank and its safes as well those mentioned in the books were not pointed out during inspections, he added.

The probe has found that Mehta used to call staffers to bring cash from the safe, some of which he used to keep himself, with the amounts in the range of Rs 50 lakh, Rs1 crore and Rs 2 crore, he said.

"We are probing if Bhoan, who was arrested late Thursday night, received kickbacks from the other accused. Bhoan was CEO of the bank from 2019 to 2024 and was the immediate supervisory officer of Hitesh Mehta. The bank had sent a proposal in September 2024 to RBI to extend the tenure of Bhoan. This was rejected by the RBI," the official informed.

"Bhoan was CEO till January this year, after which he went on sick leave and was then relieved from the post on February 6. The analysis of the balance sheet for 2019-20 period showed huge transactions had taken place at the bank. Bhoan, who was the link between the Board of Directors and branches has denied he was aware of cash in the bank," the official said.

The official said Bhoan, as CEO of the bank, must have been aware of these transactions.

He added that Abhijeet Deshmukh, part of the chartered accountancy firm that conducted audits for the bank, was questioned on Friday evening as well.

Earlier in the day, police, while seeking remand of Mehta, Paun and Bhoan, had told court probe was required in connection with the huge amount of documents related to the case.

It also told court Mehta and Paun need to be confronted with Bhoan.

The case was registered at Dadar police station on February 15 on the complaint of acting chief executive officer of the bank Devarshi Ghosh. The probe was then transferred to the EOW.

Mehta and the others have been charged under sections 316 (5) (criminal breach of trust by public servants, bankers, and others in positions of trust) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

The alleged misappropriation of funds from the safes of the bank's offices in Prabhadevi and Goregaon came to light following an inspection by the Reserve Bank of India. PTI DC BNM

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Bank embezzlement case: EOW probes discrepancies amid cash safe's low retention limit

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