Coop bank chairman, 9 others held for fraud

Bhavnagar, Gujarat, Apr 14 (UNI) The city police today arrested Bhavnagar Nagarik Cooperative Bank chairman Nirubhai Dave and ten others for their alleged involvement in the Rs 14-crore bank scam case.

Police arrested the chairman along with four directors, two managers, a former manager, and three other bank employees from their residences in the wee hours today.

Police sources said the bank had sanctioned loans of over Rs 14 crore to several persons on gold guarantee which on subsequent inspection were found to be fake. This had led to the arrest of the loan officer Jayant Shah two months back.

Following Shah's interrogation, the police today arrested Nirubhai Dave, Manibhai Gandhi, Jaydeep Joshi, Arvind Mehta and Jitubhai Upadhyay (all directors), Mehul Trivedi and Bakul Sanghvi (both managers), Kirit Vyas (a former manager), Natwar Dani, Hitesh Jaggad, and Ramesh Shah.

Three more office-bearers are wanted in the case but they are absconding.

UNI