The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested NCP chief Anil Shivajirao Bhosale and three of his associates in connection with a money laundering investigation linked to an alleged fraud of more than 71 crore rupees in a cooperative bank based in Pune.

Among those arrested are the main defendant Anil Shivajirao Bhosale, former MLC of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and main promoter-director of the cooperative bank Shivajirao Bhosale in Pune, another director Suryaji Pandurang Jadhav, the general director Tanaji Dattu Padwal and a person identified as Shailesh Bhosale.

They were placed under arrest, under articles of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), on March 6 at Yerawada Prison in Pune where they were placed in judicial detention in the fraud case. The case is also being examined by the local police, said the Directorate of Execution (ED).

“The defendants were brought before a PMLA court in Mumbai to obtain custody of ED. The court was pleased to grant ED custody to the four defendants for five days until March 11,” he said in a statement.

The ED raided the case in and around Pune in January after filing a criminal complaint against Anil Shivajirao Bhosale and others on the basis of a Pune police FIR against them. The agency, citing the police FIR, said the alleged irregularities in the bank emerged after an audit of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was conducted at its premises in April 2019.

“The RBI noticed various discrepancies in the bank’s books and records. In accordance with the RBI’s instructions to the bank’s auditor for checking cash registers, it was noticed that the entry of Cash of Rs 71.78 crore was kept on hold at the bank’s head office (in Pune) in their cash book, ”the managing director said.

“It was established that Anil Shivajirao Bhosale, who was the director of Shivajirao Bhosale Co-op Bank Ltd, had abused his position and conspired with the co-defendants and embezzled the amount of the bank and its branches for personal gain” , he alleged.

The agency said its investigation found “the collusion of all defendants in the report submitted by the auditor for the offense of money laundering by cheating, fraud and siphoning off public funds available at Shivajirao Bhosale Cooperative Bank Ltd , which were filed by small investors “. .

“It was further revealed that said deposits had been sanctioned as loans to different companies as well as entities comparatively more than their repayment capacity, which resulted in most of the loan accounts becoming NPAs ( non-performing assets), creating a loss for said bank and corresponding gains for themselves, ”he said.