New India Cooperative Bank accused sent to police custody till Feb. 21

Hitesh Mehta, General Manager and Head of Accounts at New India Cooperative Bank, after being arrested by the EOW, in Mumbai, on February 15, 2025
| Photo Credit: PTI

Former general manager and head of accounts of New India Cooperative Bank Hitesh Mehta and the beneficiary of the theft Dharmesh Paun have been sent to police custody till February 21, 2025.

Both were produced before the court on Sunday (February 17, 2025).

The Mumbai police on Saturday (February 15, 2025) arrested Hitesh Mehta, general manager and head of accounts of the New India Cooperative Bank, for allegedly misappropriating ₹122 crore from the bank, officials said.

Mr. Mehta was placed under arrest by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the city police after being questioned for more than three hours, an official said. Mr. Mehta will be produced before a local court on Sunday (February 17, 2025), the police official added.

The police move comes a day after the Mumbai based-New India Cooperative Bank’s board was superseded by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for lack of liquidity. The RBI on Friday (February 14, 2025) superseded the cooperative bank’s board for a year and appointed an administrator to manage its affairs. A day prior to that, it imposed several restrictions, including on withdrawal of funds by depositors, citing supervisory concerns emanating from the recent material developments in the bank, and to protect the interest of its depositors.

As per the complaint, Mr. Mehta along with other associates misappropriated ₹122 crore from the safes of Prabhadevi and Goregaon offices of the bank. “The above accused and his accomplices, in their capacity as General Manager and Head Accounts of the bank, committed criminal breach of trust and misappropriated the amount of about ₹122 crores of the bank’s cash kept in trust in the safe deposit boxes of the Prabhadevi and Goregaon offices. Therefore, a case was registered on the complaint of the complainant,” Dadar police said in a statement.