New India Coop Bank fraud: Wanted building material supplier held in Lucknow

A 47-year-old building material supplier was arrested from Lucknow on Saturday by the Mumbai police in connection with the Rs 122-crore New India Co-Operative Bank embezzlement case, an official said.

Pawan Amarsingh Jaiswal, who was among the six wanted accused in the case, was apprehended by a team of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police around 8 am, the official said.

Jaiswal, a resident of Jharkhand, is accused of receiving Rs 3.5 crore from the total embazzeled amount. He is the ninth person to be arrested in the case so far, the official said.

The EOW had received specific information that the accused was staying in Lucknow. Accordingly, a team was sent to the Gomatinagar Extension in the Uttar Pradesh capital, and Jaiswal was apprehended from his residence, he said.

He was produced in a local court, which has granted his transit remand till July 7. The accused is being brought to Mumbai, the official said.

According to the EOW, Rs 122 crore was siphoned off from the safes of the bank's Prabhadevi and Goregaon offices in Mumbai. The agency has filed a chargesheet against 10 accused persons, including the bank's former chairman Hiren Bhanu and his wife Gauri Bhanu, both declared proclaimed offenders.