ED arrests chairman of Karnala Nagari Sahakari Bank, Panvel in Rs 500 crore fraud case

New Delhi, June 16, 2021

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today said it had arrested Vivekanand Shankar Patil, chairman of Karnala Nagari Sahakari Bank at Panvel in Maharashtra in a bank fraud case amounting to more than Rs 500 crore.

A press release from ED said that the fraud came to light after an audit was done at the instance of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in the year 2019-20.

"Audit revealed that Vivekanand Patil was siphoning off funds since 2008 from the bank through 63 fictitious loan accounts to the loan accounts of Karnala Charitable Trust and Karnala Sports Academy, which were founded by him. It was found that management of the bank was under control of Vivekanand Patil.

"In order to siphon the funds, Vivekanand Patil used some old accounts of bank and got renewed these accounts and large amounts were transferred from these accounts to the said trust accounts. No collateral securities were taken against such loans and no correspondence was made with revenue authorities regarding payment of stamp duty for the purpose of purchasing immovable properties for which loans were obtained, thereby making the loans unsafe/unsecured," the release said.

"Further, all the above loan accounts, from where funds have been transferred to the said trust, were found to be NPA. It was further observed that without following KYC norms and other RBI guidelines, the said loans were sanctioned and disbursed at the instruction and for gains by Vivekanand Patil," it said.

The release said Patil was produced before Special Court under PMLA in Mumbai today. The court sent him to ED custody till June 25.

NNN