IT directorate to investigate BoM officials' case

PUNE: Close on the heels of the CBI raiding five senior officials from the Bank of Maharashtra last week and recovering disproportionate assets, the directorate of income tax (investigation) on Thursday said it is preparing grounds to thoroughly investigate the matter.
Director, income tax (investigation), AJ Khan, while confirming this to TNN, said investigations would be taken up shortly."We are presently scrutinising all the relevant information regarding the case, including newspaper clippings on the raids," he said. Khan said information gathered by the department will also be collated with the CBI.
Another official from the department, justified the need to investigate the matter, saying it involved recovery of huge assets from the bank officials. "We have already asked the CBI to share with us details of the investigation," he said.
It may be recalled here that the central bureau of investigation conducted simultaneous, co-ordinated raids on five senior bank officials and seven businessmen in Pune, Delhi and Mumbai in cases relating to alleged banker-borrower nexus.
These include the bank''s executive director Ashok Dugade, and general managers B K Pipariya (Delhi) and V V Karandikar (Mumbai), besides branch managers in Mumbai, R Y Khade and B T Gawade.
The raids were conducted in connection to irregularities in accounts relating to the Jiwani Group of companies, Kansom Exports and Ambica Timber Mart, among others, amounting to Rs 14.61 crore.
While the CBI revealed that share investments of Rs 20 lakh and bank savings of Rs 15 lakh were among documents recovered from Dugade''s residence, sleuths from the excise department booked a case against Karandikar in Mumbai for possessing liquor bottles worth Rs 2 lakh at his residence.