Former BJP MLA, 10 others charged in bank fraud

GANDHINAGAR - A former Gujarat BJP lawmaker Dilip Patel and 10 others have been charge-sheeted in connection with a fraud in Anand-based Karamsad Co-operative Bank Ltd, police sources said Friday.

Apart from Patel, who is former chairman of the bank, bank secretary and former BJP MP Natubhai Manibhai Patel, five directors of the bank and four others have been named as accused in the case.

The chargesheet was filed by Gujarat’s crime investigation department (CID)’s economic offences cell in the court of Ahmedabad Metropolitan magistrate K.B. Mehta. It has charged the accused of misappropriating Rs.34.72 lakh by way of granting huge loans to their relatives in the name of some 15 companies.

According to the chargesheet, the loans were given to people without ascertaining possibility of return during 1996 and 2003. After these people allegedly siphoned off this huge amount, the bank witnessed financial failure.

The investigating agency arrested the accused persons recently, after the Gujarat High Court’s warning to the agency for not taking any action despite its directions.

The matter reached the high court when a businessman Hitesh Patel sought arrest of MLA Dilip Patel in 2007 after the police did not investigate the case in a proper manner.

When CID (Crime) department failed to move in the matter, he filed a PIL again in the high court seeking directions to the investigating agency. Justice M.R. Shah warned the police for the delay in the investigation and set a deadline to complete the process and submit a report.