The Mumbai police on Saturday arrested Hitesh Mehta, general manager and head of accounts of New India Cooperative Bank, for allegedly misappropriating Rs 122 crore from the bank, officials said.
Mehta was placed under arrest by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the city police after being questioned for over three hours, an official said. He was called to record his statement before the probe agency at its south Mumbai office after a case was registered against him and others.
Mehta will be produced before a local court on Sunday, the police official added.
The EOW raided Mehta’s Dahisar residence and seized certain documents, said sources.
The case against Mehta was lodged on the complaint of Devarshi Shishir Kumar Ghosh, the bank’s chief executive officer, Mumbai police said. In his complaint, Ghosh alleged that Mehta, who managed the Dadar and Goregaon branches, misused his position between 2020 and 2025 to siphon off funds from the branches under him. While the accused embezzled Rs 112 crore from the safe in Prabhadevi, Rs 10 crore were allegedly siphoned off from the Goregaon branch.
The Dadar police registered an FIR against Mehta under Sections 316(5) (criminal breach of trust by a public servant or banker, merchant, broker, attorney or agent) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Ganesh Gawde, deputy commissioner of police, Zone 5, said on Saturday that the case was transferred to the EOW of Mumbai police for further investigation.
On Thursday, the Reserve Bank of India had imposed restrictions preventing New India Co-operative Bank from granting or renewing loans, accepting fresh deposits, and making payments without prior approval from the RBI.
It was followed by the regulator superseding the bank’s board for 12 months and appointed Shreekant, a former chief general manager of State Bank of India (SBI), as administrator to oversee operations.
The RBI cited “poor governance standards” as the primary reason for its intervention. The RBI’s move led to alarmed customers rushing to various branches of the bank to withdraw their deposits.
This is the first major action against a cooperative bank in Maharashtra after the collapse of the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank due to large-scale fraudulent loans.