Published On : Wed, Jul 17th, 2019

Navodaya Bank Scam : HC denies interim relief to Dhawad, wife

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Nagpur: In yet another significant development in infamous Navodaya bank scam, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court has denied anticipatory bail to the main accused and formed Congress MLA Ashok Dhawad and his wife Kiran. Dhawad, who was the bank’s chairman has been charged with fraud, forgery and criminal breach of trust along with 16 other ex-directors of the bank.

The court trashed their interim relief plea during the first hearing in the case. Their application for anticipatory bail was heard by Justice Manish Pitale who posted the next hearing to July 23 while also issuing the notices to government and others to file reply by this date.

Previously the special court formed under Maharashtra Protection of Interests of Depositors in Financial Establishments Act (MPID), had rejected bail pleas of all accused in the alleged scam, including the Dhawad couple.

In the scam pertaining to misappropriation of funds in Navodaya Urban Cooperative Bank, Dhawad along with 16 others bank directors were booked by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on the basis of a complaint lodged by the auditor of State Department of Cooperatives. All of them were accused of duping hundreds of investors by distributing bogus loans between 2010 and 2015. Subsequently, the cooperative bank had gone into liquidation after its banking license was cancelled six months ago.

Frauds were reported following an audit conducted for financial years 2015-16 and 2016-17 allegedly involving Dhawad and his team of directors.