FIR filed against educationists in 'misappropriation' case

Pune: The Pune Camp police have lodged an FIR against Rosary School owners - Vivek Aranha, Vinay Aranha and Dipti Aranha - for "cheating and misappropriating Rs 7 crore vehicle loan" extended by the city-based Cosmos Bank.
The bank said it has also filed a complaint against car dealer B U Bhandari Pvt Ltd for allegedly giving an "inflated quotation" by approximately Rs 1 crore for the purchase of three Mercedes Benz cars which amounted to Rs 4.6 crore.Out of the total loan of Rs 7 crore, the Aranhas also purchased two BMW cars, one Innova car and a Nissan car from another dealer in Pune.
However, Vinay Aranha, director, Rosary Schools, told TOI that the family was not in agreement with the FIR and termed it as "frivolous" pointing out that the bank had extended loan on the actual invoice and not on the quotation amount. "So there is no question of cheating," he added..
Police inspector Mukund Mahajan of the Pune Camp police station said they will investigate if B U Bhandari inflated the quotation and whether the Aranhas are in the wrong for misappropriation. "The FIR was filed on Thursday night," he added.
The bank in a statement said the Aranhas had taken the vehicle loan to purchase three Mercedes Benz premium luxury cars in mid-2013, out of which two cars were unregistered initially. "After investigations it was found that one of the two cars was registered in Jharkhand, while the other remains unregistered and is untraceable. The Aranha family had taken quotations/proforma invoices of inflated prices from B U Bhandari Pvt Ltd and defrauded the bank," the statement added.
The bank said it has established that the excess amount (difference between the car price and the amount lent by it) has been credited to the "account of one associate (name withheld) of Aranha Family as a kickback." The money was subsequently withdrawn from the account, it said.
Cosmos Bank group chairman Mukund Abhyankar disputed Aranhas' claims saying that the bank advanced the loan on the basis of the quotation and it is the responsibility of the dealer to register the vehicles he sells.
"Out of the total loan sanctioned, Rs 6 crore is outstanding today. Neither are they repaying nor are they presenting the cars for bank inspection. A kickback of Rs 70 lakh is sent by RTGS/NEFT to the associate as per written request by Vinay to B U Bhandari," Abhyankar added.
The Aranhas have now asked for restructuring of the loan amount (after they stopped repaying the instalments) and VinayAranha said that all the vehicles are present "contrary to the bank's claims."
The bank and the Aranha family are also involved in another loan case with the latter owing the bank Rs 39 crore. Both the parties have filed cases against each other for forging of documents.
B U Bhandari spokesperson clarified that they provided proforma invoices to Aranhas "as is the practice in this line of business," but claimed that they were not aware of any transaction between the bank and the Aranhas.
"We have never been a party to any of the document executed between the bank and the Aranhas. In fact, even the payment towards the price of the vehicles was brought to us by the Aranhas and not the bank. As we have not interacted with the bankers ever, we are not in the know how and what was the nature of the transaction between the Aranhas and the Cosmos Bank and what papers/documents were exchanged between the two," the spokesperson said.
Simultaneously the bank is also fighting to recover Rs 39 crore of loans extended to the Aranhas. Both the bank and the Aranha family have filed a case against each other for forging documents.
The bank had filed a case against Aranhas for forging 7/12 extracts and one non-agriculture plot to claim credit from the bank. Aranhaerd5s, on the other hand, have filed a case against the bank for forging the documents.
"Cosmos Bank has countered this in the court and obtained a stay. They are just doing this to harass the board and stop action," said Mukund Abhyankar, Group Chairman, Cosmos Bank. Aranhas also accused the bank board of using "strong arm tactics."
The bank said that it has already received order under section 14 of Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 to take possession of Rosary School Camp property. Aranhas have filed a petition in the Bombay High Court against this. The court will hear the case next on June 9.