Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday filed a prosecution complaint against former Maharashtra MLA Vivekanand Shankar Patil and Karnala Nagari Sahakari Bank Limited in Panvel, the agency officials informed on Friday.
In June this year, the ED had arrested Patil in the alleged money laundering probe linked to Rs 512.54 crore Karnala Nagari Sahakari Bank fraud case. The accused, along with others, had allegedly siphoned off the money in the form of loans by submitting forged documents.
“Patil, a resident of Panvel, has been found guilty of an offence of money laundering under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act,” the ED had earlier said.
In February last year, the Navi Mumbai Police had booked 76 persons, including the former MLA and the chairman of Karnala Nagari Sahakari Bank in Panvel, for alleged financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 512.54 crore. The police sources alleged that the loan accounts were opened in the bank without proper documentation and the loan was misappropriated and routed to different accounts.
The case was registered against Patil, who is also the chairman of the cooperative bank, along with the vice-chairman, directors and chief executive officer besides several others who had obtained loans from the institution, the police said.
The Panvel Town Police had registered an FIR on charges of criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy, causing disappearance of evidence of offence, cheating and forgery under provisions of Indian Penal Code, the Cooperative Societies Act and the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act.
The police had claimed that the irregularities were revealed after an inspection of the bank’s operations by the Reserve Bank of India led to a special audit of the lender’s 17 branches in April 2019.
The ED had launched a money laundering probe on the basis of an FIR filed by the Navi Mumbai Police, sources said.
