The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Mumbai, which is conducting a money laundering investigation into the Rs 122 crore embezzlement case involving New India Cooperative Bank, has found that Rs 45 crore were diverted to overseas entities linked to the bank's former chairman, Hiren Bhanu, the central agency said on Friday.
As part of the ongoing money laundering investigation, the ED on Thursday carried out search operations at seven locations in Mumbai and Gujarat. During the raids, the agency seized several incriminating documents, property-related papers, and valuables worth approximately Rs 1 crore.
According to the ED, the seized documents revealed that funds from certain loan accounts, which later turned into Non-Performing Assets (NPAs)—were diverted to Bhanu’s foreign entities.
"Details and documents of such transactions amounting to more than Rs 45 Crore sent to foreign entities relating to Hiren Bhanu, have been ascertained which are being examined during the course of ongoing investigation," the financial probe agency stated in a statement on Friday.
The ED has said that their investigation was initiated on the basis of the embezzlement of cash amounting to Rs 122 Crore from the New India Co-operative Bank unearthed during the Risk Assessment of New India Cooperative Bank Ltd., conducted by Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police is also investigating the fraud and has arrested eight individuals, including the alleged mastermind, former General Manager Hitesh Mehta. Hiren Bhanu and his wife, Gauri Bhanu,who served as the bank’s vice-chairperson are also wanted in the case and have been declared proclaimed offenders by a Mumbai court.
EOW has also got a brain mapping test of Mehta done.The results of the scientific test is indicative of his role and role of other accused such as ex-chairman Hiren Bhanu (wanted by the EOW), CEO Abhimanyu Bhoan, Mehta's friends Arunachalam Ullahanathan Maruthuvar, Dharmesh Paun and others for their involvement in the scam.
According to the police investigation, Mehta had allegedly been siphoning off money from the bank’s safe between 2019 and 2025. He reportedly handed over to his two close accomplices Dharmesh Paun and Ullahanathan,who assisted in the misappropriation. The police stated that after the fraud was uncovered during an RBI inspection at the bank’s Prabhadevi and Goregaon branches on February 12, Mehta confessed to the crime and disclosed the involvement of other accused individuals.
The other accused arrested in the case are the bank’s former CEO Ambhimanyu Bhoan, Ullahanathan’s son Manohar, and Kapil Dedhia. Former bank chairman Hiren Bhanu and his wife, who are abroad, are wanted in the case.
Bhanu had in the past countered probe findings and claimed in a complaint letter written to EOW that on February 12 when the RBI was carrying out a check at the bank, Mehta had disappeared and later admitted before Bhanu that he embezzled funds in the past.
The EOW has already initiated the process of attaching 21 immovable properties worth approximately Rs 168 crore belonging to five key accused in the New India Cooperative Bank funds embezzlement case.
