City Co-op Bank files case against defaulters

The Surat-based City Co-operative Bank has lodged a complaint of fraud against 11 persons, including builder Mukesh Desai, an accused in the Suryapur Co-operative Bank scam.

Official sources said according to the complaint, 11 directors of the Ankleshwar-based Pragati Alco Chemical Pvt Ltd had secured a loan of Rs 9.96 crore from City Co-operative Bank in September 2002, mortgaging the company's land and machinery as security.

The directors repaid some instalments of the loan, but stopped doing so after some time, the complaint said.

Following this, the bank's board initiated steps to seal the mortgaged properties.

The directors, however, repaid some more money to the bank and brought any action against them to a halt.

When the remaining money was not paid, Jaikrishna Mevawala, the bank manager, filed a case against the 11 directors. Following this, a court ordered that a complaint be lodged against the directors.

In view of the court directive, police registered a case against the directors Harshad Shah, Dhiru Patel, Ramesh Sharma, Divyakant Laveti, Sunil Labhankar, Manoj Vyas, Mukesh Desai, Deepak Thakkar, Rajendra Parekh, Gautam Patel and Ajay Pandya.

Mukesh Desai is an accused in the Rs 44 crore Suryapur Co-operative Bank scam. He came out on bail just recently after spending over a year in jail.

Manoj Vyas also is an accused in the Suryapur case and is still in jail, while Gautam Patel is the chairman of the city-based Tapi Co-operative Bank. Mukesh Desai has, however, refuted the charges levelled against him.

Desai said, "I have not taken any loan from City Bank. The loan does not even figure in the bank's audit report. This complaint is an attempt to cover up a hawala transaction of Rs 12 crore. I had mentioned this transaction in papers submitted with the Gujarat High Court and have demanded a CBI inquiry into the case."

Inspector of Rander police station, B S Pathan said, " Loans were taken by the accused from City Bank. They failed to repay. Investigations are in the preliminary stages."