A Kotak Mahindra Bank official was arrested on Saturday night by the Lonavala City police in connection with a criminal case of cheating and forgery that was registered against the bank officials, including Managing Director (MD) Uday Kotak, last month.
According to the police, the FIR was registered against seven officials of the bank on the complaint of one Lonavala resident Ashok Purohit, Director of Krishna Inn Pvt Ltd company.
The other officials named in the FIR include bank officials Willey Fernandes, Samprad Kamat, Ambar Darbari, Pramod Krupal, Alankar Khare and Abhijeet Magar.
"We have arrested one of the bank officials named in the FIR, Alankar Khere, on Saturday. He was produced before the court which remanded him two days in police custody. Further investigation in the case is going on," police inspector Sitaram Dubal of Lonavala City police station told the Free Press Journal.
"In 2013, the victim had taken a loan from the bank. The complainant Ashok Purohit had alleged that the bank cheated and forged documents using his signatures and rubber stamps to change the title of his loan from Lease Rental Discounting (LRD) to Loan against property (LAP) with a higher interest rate of 12% instead of agreed 10.3% causing financial loss and mental stress to the borrower."
"In 2018, when the complainant learnt about this, he approached the EOW. The EOW then carried out a preliminary probe into the matter and when it was established that bogus signatures were done, they referred the case to the police station for further action," said inspector Dubal.
Rohit Rao, Spokesperson, Kotak Mahindra Group said: “A borrower at our Lonavala Branch has filed an FIR naming Kotak Mahindra Bank officials at the Lonavala Police Station wherein he has made false allegations in the context of his borrowing transactions. The bank acted in accordance with the prevailing law and processes at all times. We are co-operating with the local authorities."
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