Mumbai court grants pre-arrest bail to New India Co-operative Bank's former CEO in cheating case
His anticipatory bail plea was allowed by additional sessions judge N G Shukla on July 5. The detailed order was made available on Tuesday.
Bhoan is in judicial custody since Feb following his arrest in a related case probed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police.
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In the case at hand, the prosecution alleged that while serving as the bank's CEO, Bhoan, along with bank chairman Ranjit Bhanu (deceased) and vice-chairman Gauri Ranjit Bhanu, accepted a one-time settlement (OTS) proposal from Percept Group of Companies of Rs 61.3 crore for the company's outstanding loan amount of Rs 79.9 crore.
The settlement allegedly caused the bank a wrongful loss of Rs 18.56 crore, it said.
The police further alleged that Bhoan and the co-accused received nearly Rs 6.4 crore in their bank accounts from the company in exchange for accepting the OTS proposal.
Hence, the FIR came to be lodged against Bhoan and other accused under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy.
Bhoan's advocate, Wesley Moneza, contended that he was appointed as the CEO in 2019 and had no role in accepting the OTS proposal. He highlighted that the previous OTS applications by Percept Group were rejected by the board of directors and Bhoan himself.
The OTS in contention was accepted on Oct 19, 2023, as per the RBI guidelines issued on June 8, 2023, the advocate submitted.
He further contended that there was no chance of recovering the loan by auctioning mortgage property, and hence, the OTS was accepted by the board of directors.
There was no cheating and wrongful loss to the bank, Moneza said.
The court noted the investigating officer had not sought Bhoan's custodial interrogation despite him being in judicial custody in another crime. Hence, it seems that the police do not really require Bhoan's custodial interrogation, the court said.
The judge held that in the case, Bhoan as the bank CEO had placed the OTS proposal given by Percept Group Companies before the board meeting. "Prima facie, there is no material showing role of applicant in taking decision of according approval to said proposal," the court ruled, while allowing his plea.
Earlier this year, New India Cooperative Bank was hit by an alleged Rs 122 crore embezzlement of funds by top management, and has been under an RBI-appointed administrator since then.
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