Panel to probe manager’s links with Bhajiawala

Surat: The Surat People’s Cooperative Bank will set up a three-member committee to decide the fate of its senior manager Pankaj Bhatt, who is being questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Gandhinagar for opening financier Kishore Bhajiawala and his two sons’ multiple bank accounts which helped them to indulge in money laundering and evade taxes.
The bank’s board of directors which met here on Monday decided to form the committee but names of the members are yet to be finalized.A former general manager of the bank was approached to be a committee member but he refused citing family reasons even as the CBI summoned two other employees of the bank from Udhna branch on Tuesday for questioning in Gandhinagar. Sources said the CBI could arrest Bhatt, Bhajiawala and his two sons once the senior manager’s questioning is over.
Meanwhile, officials from income tax department swooped down on the Parsi Sheri Branch of Surat Peoples Cooperative Bank in the city on Monday evening. Bhajiawala and his family had 27 accounts and 17 lockers in Udhna branch which they used to operate even after banking hours with assistance of senior managers like they did after demonetization was announced on November 8.
An officer of Surat People’s Cooperative Bank said, “We have not been provided search report by the income tax authorities till now. We have learnt from media reports that Rs3.94 crore was detected in 27 accounts of Bhajiawala family with the bank.”
Sources said in January 2016 a cheque of Rs1.5 crore was deposited in Pandesara branch by Bhajiawala and the bank credited the money in his account next day without waiting for clearance. Before the cheque from its Parsi Sheri branch was cleared, Rs1.5 crore was withdrawn in cash by Bhajiawala. The officers of the bank reopened the respective branch offices around 8pm then and made the required corrections and computer entries, they added.