New India Bank Scam: Hiren Bhanu pins the blame on Hitesh Mehta for Rs 122 crore fraud

Mumbai, April 7 (IANS) In a significant development pertaining to the New India Cooperative Bank embezzlement case, former vice chairman Hiren Bhanu has submitted a statement to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police, in which he claimed his innocence and accused the arrested senior officer Hitesh Mehta of being solely responsible for the Rs 122 crore fraud.

Bhanu, who, along with his wife Gauri Bhanu, was declared a proclaimed offender by a Mumbai court, has made shocking claims about Mehta’s alleged confession. In his statement, Bhanu has revealed that Mehta admitted to the crime during a phone call when officials from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) first arrived at the bank’s Prabhadevi headquarters in February.

Bhanu asserts that he has been living abroad for over 30 years and that his wife’s recent trip to Thailand was planned well in advance. He gave these details just to deny allegations that they fled the country to avoid involvement in the scandal.

Providing a detailed account of the day the fraud came to light, Bhanu described how Mehta, the bank’s most senior employee with 35 years of service, mysteriously disappeared during the RBI inspection. According to Bhanu, Mehta later confessed to embezzling funds over five years. Bhanu claimed he convinced Mehta to return to the bank and admit his guilt to the authorities, and he has provided call records to support his version of events.

Meanwhile, those monitoring this scam closely are of the view that Bhanu's statement has in fact raised serious concerns about the oversight of the bank, particularly with the RBI having supervised the institution for four years, including placing a nominated director on the bank's audit committee.

Bhanu also shared through the statement that regular audit reports never flagged any discrepancies in the bank's cash balances, leaving the board members unaware of the missing funds.

He further challenged allegations that he received Rs 26 crore in illicit payments, asserting that his income sources are properly documented in his income tax returns.

Bhanu also disclosed that Mehta allegedly diverted Rs 70 crore to a building in Dahisar and parked money with six other individuals.

This claim comes despite Mehta reportedly failing a lie detector test related to these transactions. Eight arrests have so far been made in this case.

--IANS

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