A protest by depositors of Shivajirao Bhosale Cooperative Bank. (File)
As police probe the alleged Rs 71-crore fraud in Shivajirao Bhosale Cooperative Bank, stories of its 95,000 depositors include those of a septuagenarian whose life’s earnings are now frozen, a single mother forced to take a loan to pay for her daughter’s wedding and a family whose belongings were washed away in the September 2019 floods.
A Special Court in Pune had, on Wednesday, remanded NCP leader and MLC Anil Bhosale and three other office-bearers of the bank to police custody till March 6 after they were arrested in connection with the fraud late on Tuesday.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Pune City police, which is probing the case, has arrested Bhosale (55), two directors Suryaji Jadhav (69) and Tanaji Padwal (50), and chief accountant of the bank Shailesh Bhosale (47). Nearly a dozen more members of the dismissed board of directors of the bank, including Anil Bhosale’s wife Reshma — who is an independent corporator with BJP’s support in the PMC — have been named in the case but not yet arrested.
Since the first week of May last year, there has been a freeze on withdrawals from the bank after a special scrutiny, conducted by the Reserve Bank of India in April, revealed serious irregularities in the functioning of the bank. Since then, all depositors have been allowed just a one-time withdrawal of Rs 1,000 and nothing more, as per the rules.
Uruli resident 46-year-old Leelavati Jain, a single mother who earns her living by making khakhras, has not been able to access her deposits of Rs 4 lakh, which are her entire life’s savings. “I have been saving since 2000 for my daughters’ weddings as well as my future. After May last year, it’s as if there was an earthquake in my life. My second daughter was about to get married, and I had no money. I had to take a loan from a local Jain community establishment for the wedding. I want these worst times of my life to get over soon,” she says.
Activist Mihir Thatte, who has been uniting and leading the aggrieved depositors of the bank, said, “There is ample proof to show that the case presently being probed by the police is just the tip of the iceberg. The corruption is deep-rooted and has enjoyed political protection. We have been saying that at this stage, liquidation is the only way out.”
The bank has over 95,000 depositors, who have total deposits of nearly Rs 450 crore. It has 14 branches, all of them in Pune district. Of the total 95,000 depositors, around 90,000 have deposits of less than Rs 5 lakh.
“Majority of the depositors come from low-income groups. Many work as domestic helps, blue-collar workers and small business owners who have kept their life’s earnings in the bank. Many aged, ailing senior citizens have been dependent on the interest from their savings. The one-time withdrawal limit of Rs 1,000 is shameful. What will these people do with the amount,” asks Thatte.
Dadasaheb Hussain Shakh, 76, who retired as a technician from a private company, has been worried about his deposits of over Rs 20 lakh, which include his life’s savings and retirement benefits. His son Nadim says, “My father recently suffered from a lung ailment and had to be admitted to the ICU. The treatment cost a lot. It’s as if his life has come to a standstill. My mother and I also have our savings accounts in the same bank. It’s a crippling feeling.”
For the Nerlekar family in Gururaj Society, the ordeal has been twice as hard. Within a month of the freeze on withdrawals, the family lost all their belongings in the house to the flash flood on September 25. Madhukar (72) and Sharada (70) Nerlekar have total deposits of over Rs 6 lakh in the bank.
Remembering the night of the flash flood, their son Rohit says, “As water levels started rising, we had to go to a safer place. Within minutes after we moved, our house was flooded up to 15 feet. Absolutely nothing could be recovered. Due to the freeze on withdrawals, the process of returning to normal has been painful. 2019 was the worst year of our lives.”
Investigators have said that one more case about the siphoning off of funds is expected to be registered against some of the people named in the current investigation.