₹122 Crore Bank Fraud: Mumbai Court Extends Police Custody of Two Accused

Mumbai: A court in Mumbai has extended the police custody of two accused in the ₹122 crore embezzlement case linked to New India Cooperative Bank until April 1. The accused include Javed Azam, the younger brother of BJP’s former Maharashtra secretary Hyder Azam, and Rajeevranjan Pandey alias Pawan Gupta.

The police informed the court that Javed Azam had allegedly opened 10 electronic showrooms in Bihar using the siphoned money. Authorities are now in the process of seizing these stores. Meanwhile, two other accused, Kapil Dedhia and Unnanathan Arunachalam, have been sent to judicial custody for 14 days.

The fraud came to light during an RBI audit on February 12, when officials discovered ₹122 crore missing from the bank’s Prabhadevi headquarters. The prime accused, Hitesh Mehta, a former bank general manager, later confessed to siphoning funds from the bank’s Prabhadevi and Goregaon branches since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mehta recently underwent a brain mapping test at the Kalina Forensic Laboratory, and the report is expected next week. Police continue to investigate the financial trail, including ₹15 crore allegedly invested in corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds.