By Admin 
New india cooperative bank scam: Former vice-president of the bank Hiren Bhanu has given a new statement after being accused of fleeing from the country when the investigation begins in the New India Co-operative Bank scam, in which he has claimed that he has been living abroad for the last 30 years. Hiren has claimed that his wife Gauri Bhanu, who is the acting president of the bank, is also not running away due to any scam, but she is living abroad with her, while her recent visit to Thailand was already planned.
Hiren Bhanu had given his statement to the Economic Offenses Branch of Mumbai Police (EOW) last month and convicted the accused and senior officer Hitesh Mehta, arrested for the alleged Rs 122 crore scam. He claimed that when RBI officials reached the bank’s headquarters in Prabhadevi, Mehta himself called him and admitted to Gujarati that he had done this work and confessed to rigging money in five years.
Hiren Bhanu is accused of receiving Rs 26 crore out of the embezzled amount and his wife Gauri Bhanu is accused of receiving Rs 2 crore from Hitesh Mehta. In a statement recorded in EOW, Bhanu has completely rejected the allegations made against himself and his wife. In his statement, Bhanu has said that the bank was under the supervision of RBI for the last 4 years. The bank also had a director named in the audit committee of the board by the RBI and the same person was also a part of the Board of New India Bank.
He also informed that according to the bank’s policy, the entire responsibility of recommending the appointment of all external auditors for various departments including the bank’s statutory auditor was of the head of the internal audit department. All external auditors had to give their comments to the head of the internal audit department, who in turn would report to the audit committee of the board. After passing the audit committee, this report would be kept in the next board meeting.
In his statement, he further said that in any audit report presented before the audit committee in the last 5 years, no disturbances in the cash balance have been exposed. Therefore, the board of directors, presidents and vice -presidents could never be aware of the disappearance of any cash. The police have all the minutes of the board and the committee. Bhanu has said in his statement that Mehta was the most senior employee of the bank and was working there for the last 35 years and was there since his father’s chairman.
He has given a detailed details of the incidents of the morning of 12 February to the police. That day RBI officials came to the bank. He asked all the senior management of the bank to gather in the board room and Mehta was also present at that time. After about an hour, Mehta disappeared from the bank.
At around 2:30 pm, RBI officials sent an email to all the senior officials of the bank asking why Rs 122 crore disappeared in the cash cell. The management had no clue about what was happening because it was the department of Mr. Mehta and he was missing. Chief Compliance Officer Mr. Ghosh then called former CEO of the bank Mr. Bhoan, as he was very upset and had no answer.
After Mehta reached the bank, he himself confessed to the RBI officials and the bank officials present that he was fully responsible for the crime. Bhanu also claimed that Mehta confessed to giving Rs 70 crore to a building in Dahisar, while a large amount of money was allegedly parked with six others.
Bhanu has denied in his statement that Mehta paid him Rs 26 crore. He said that his sources of income are registered in his income tax returns and allegations against him are untreated. He also emphasized how the lie -catching test was done on Mehta and the results of which were negative. Bhanu also raised the question as to how the fraud has not been noticed on fraud despite the monitoring of RBI since 2021, which causes serious doubts.
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