Mumbai: 2 women arrested for Rs 3 crore FD scam at Hindu Gymkhana

MUMBAI: Police recently arrested two women, including the senior manager of an investment company, after Bombay high court pulled them up for poor progress of investigations in a Rs 3-crore fixed deposit scam of Hindu Gymkhana.
Binal Shah (44), manager of Daani Investment, and agent, Bina Barot (45), were arrested last Thursday for cheating, forgery, breach of trust, using bogus documents as genuine and criminal conspiracy.A senior police official from the banking unit of economic offences wing said they were remanded to police custody.
Early this month, a division bench of Justices B P Dharmadhikari and S V Kotwal, hearing a petition filed by P J Hindu Gymkhana and seeking details of investigations, had come down heavily on police and directed the police commissioner to look into the matter and file an affidavit.
In 2015, police had arrested investment consultant, Anupam Thakur, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur (SBBJ) branch manager Ramesh Purohit and Andheri’s Sheesha Lounge owner, Mohammed Fasiuddin, and filed a charge-sheet against them.
The gymkhana is one of many entities defrauded by the syndicate, which under the pretext of availing good interest rates in FDs, opened overdraft loan accounts in the names of various companies and siphoned huge amounts with forged documents.
The gymkhana complained that they had been keeping their FDs with a nationalised bank in south Mumbai, but the managing committee (2012-14) decided to deposit Rs 3 crore with SBBJ’s Malad branch. “This was done at the bidding of a financial consultant, Bina, who had promised high returns through Daani. Barot opened accounts in SBBJ’s Malad branch through Binal, who was branch manager. Believing them, gymkhana officials transferred Rs 3 crore through real-time gross settlement (RTGS) from Bank of Baroda Reclamation branch to SBBJ’s Malad branch,” said an officer.
Within two months, when they learnt about Mohammed Fasiuddin’s involvement in duping an educational institution, gymkhana officials checked their investment and were shocked to find that someone had taken an overdraft facility of Rs 2.70 crore against their FD. They learnt from SBBJ that their Rs 3 crore was transferred to Yashraj Enterprises, Darshan Enterprises, Shivam Trading and S K Overseas.
The gymkhana lodged a complaint and it transpired that Binal and Bina facilitated the documentation and fraudulently obtained the overdraft facility in the gymkhana’s name and allegedly misappropriated a huge amount for monetary considerations.