Navodaya Bank scam: Absconding accused builder Hemant Jham nabbed by Crime Branch
Nagpur: In a major success, Crime Branch Unit 1 has nabbed the builder Hemant Sikandar Jham, an accused in the Rs 39 crore Navodaya Bank scam, and absconding since past two years. Apart from being accused in the multi-crore bank scam, the builder was wanted for duping hundreds of people in the name of providing row houses and flats in Kanhaiyya City scheme floated by him.
According to police, the Jham Builders in 2011 had floated Kanhaiyya City scheme of row houses and flats. The accused Hemant Jham had taken crores of rupees from people in the name of the scheme. However, the accused builder went absconding without providing possession of row houses and flats to the people from whom he had taken money. An offence in this connection was registered with Sonegaon police in 2015.
Around 400 persons had lodged complaints against Jham Builders with District Consumers Forum. But despite the court issuing summons and warrants, the accused Hemant Jham was dodging the cops. District Consumers Forum had also issued over 250 summons and warrants against the accused but he had gone absconding. In a curious turn of events, Hemant Jham was kidnapped in this connection and a ransom was demanded. A case in this regard has been registered with Sonegaon police in 2016.
Taking a serious note, the Commissioner of Police had assigned the job of tracing the absconding accused to Crime Branch. The sleuths of Crime Branch were on the trail of accused and they hit the success on Friday, September 14. Acting on a tip-off, the cops rounded up the accused Hemant Jham (33) from his Flat No. 202, Archid Bloom Apartment, Sainagar, Sonegaon. He was booked under Sections 406, 409, 420, 120B, 465, 467, 468, 477 of the IPC read with Section 3 of MPID Act and Sections 65, 66 of IT Act and put behind the bars. The accused was handed over to Police Inspector, Economic Offences Wing, Crime Branch, for further course of action.
The arrest was made by PI S V Khandekar, ASIs Srinivas Mishra, Rajkumar Deshmukh, Vasanta Chaure, constables Sunil Chaudhary, Naresh Sahare, Suresh Thakur, NPCs Amit Patre, Ashish Thakre, Ashish Deore, Ravi Barai, sepoys Rahul Ingole, Sushil Shrivas, Suraj Bhongade, Suhas Shingne, Mangesh Madavi, woman police sepoy Nita Davre, NPC Bablu Michael (driver) under the guidance of Commissioner of Police Dr Bhushankumar Upadhyay, Joint Commissioner of Police Ravindra Kadam, Additional CP (Crime) Nilersh Bharne, DCP (Detection) Gajanan Rajmane and ACP Sudhir Nandanwar.
The main accused in the Navodaya Bank scam are former Congress MLA Ashok Dhawad and his wife Kiran. Dhawad, who was the bank’s Chairman has been charged with fraud, forgery and criminal breach of trust along with 16 other ex-directors of the bank.
In the scam pertaining to misappropriation of funds in Navodaya Urban Cooperative Bank, Dhawad along with 16 others bank directors were booked by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on the basis of a complaint lodged by the auditor of State Department of Cooperatives. All of them were accused of duping hundreds of investors by distributing bogus loans between 2010 and 2015. Subsequently, the cooperative bank had gone into liquidation after its banking license was cancelled six months ago.
Frauds were reported following an audit conducted for financial years 2015-16 and 2016-17 allegedly involving Dhawad and his team of directors.
Navodaya Bank scam: Absconding accused builder Hemant Jham nabbed by Crime Branch
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