INDIA. Mumbai: Five members of Mulchandani’s family, including Amar Mulchandani, former Chairman of the Seva Vikas Co-operative Bank, were arrested by the Pimpri Police, Pune, Maharashtra, on charges of obstructing officers of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) while conducting searches at their residential premises, “Mishty Palace,” on Sunday.
According to the statement issued by ED on Monday, the agency conducted the searches at ten locations on Friday, January 27. It seized gold and diamond jewellery worth Rs 2.72 crore, Rs 41 lakh in cash, four high-end cars, digital devices, and various incriminating documents during the searches conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) of 2002. The ED has been investigating a Rs 429.6 crore loan fraud at the Seva Vikas Coop Bank, Pimpri Chinchwad, Pune.
However, during the searches, the members of the Mulchandani family hindered the probe and tried to destroy the evidence. As such, a police complaint was lodged.
The ED team, accompanied by bank panchas and the CRPF, visited the residences of Amar Mulchandani. But it could not get into his house because no one opened it. Following this, two police officers and a locksmith went to the premises to break open the door. Around 8.45 pm, a male member opened the door from inside as the locksmith was attempting to break it open.
When the ED team entered the premises, the defendants and their servant, Suraj Yadav, were present. When asked why they did not open the door, they falsely claimed that they were sleeping. Thus, the ED team refrained from doing the search for more than two hours, and the family members tried to destroy the evidence.
The team was informed that Amar Mulchandani was unavailable.His family members obstructed the search, and he used this time to destroy evidence. It was subsequently found that he was hiding in a locked room on the same premises.
Based on the ED’s complaint, the police booked Amar Mulchandani, Ashok Mulchandani, Manohar Mulchandani, Mrs Daya Mulchandani, Mrs Sadhna Mulchandani, and Sagar Mulchandani under the sections of IPC 353 (assault with criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of an offence or giving false information to screen offender) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 120 (criminal conspiracy). They were produced before the court and were remanded to magistrate custody.
Fraud
The ED initiated an investigation based on an FIR registered at Vimantal Police station, Pune, against Vinay Aranha of Rosary Education Group and others for loan fraud. Subsequently, Joint Registrar (Audit) conducted the audit of the entire Seva Vikas Coop Bank and found gross fraud and misappropriation of Rs 429.6 crore spread across 126 Non-Performing Asset (NPA) loan accounts.
The Board of Directors led by Amar Mulchandani violated all banking norms and deliberately sanctioned loans to ineligible/ shell entities to siphon off the funds.
Based on this audit report, additional multiple FIRs were registered against the loan beneficiaries and bank management, including Amar Mulchandani. The license of the bank was cancelled on October 10, 2022, by the RBI.
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