Bank of Maharashtra board takes away Marathe, Gupta's executive powers

The board of Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) has taken away functional powers of its managing director and chief executive Ravindra Marathe and executive director R K Gupta to avoid reputation risks to public sector lender arising out of criminal cases against two executives.

A C Rout, existing executive director, will look after all the functional responsibilities of Marathe and Gupta.

On June 20, 2018, the Economic Offences Wing of the Pune police had arrested six persons, including Marathe and Gupta in a cheating case lodged against city-based real estate developer D S Kulkarni and his wife.  On June 27, a special Pune court granted bail to Marathe in a case involving D S Kulkarni.

In view of the recent developments, the board, at its meeting, decided that MD&CEO and executive director be divested of all functional responsibilities of bank with immediate effect, state-owned bank said in filing with BSE.

Bank executives said the proposal was moved by representative of the government, which holds a majority stake in Pune-based bank. While the charges against bank officials are in the nature of allegations, it was thought that it would be prudent to keep the bank, listed entity, away from being under a cloud.