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Mumbai: Doctor siphons Rs 36 crore from workers' union FD accounts, held

MUMBAI: A 57-year-old homeopathy doctor who siphoned Rs 36 crore from seven fixed deposit accounts belonging to Mathadi Kamgar Union was arrested by the city Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Monday. Another accused in the case, State Bank of India (SBI) Byculla branch manager Nikhil Roy, is yet to be arrested. Rs 12 crore has been recovered so far.



Dr Mubarak Patel approached Roy and hatched the plan-Roy then approached the union, found investigators. In his complaint filed last year, chairman of Iron and Steel Kamgar Kalyan Mandal, Balraj Deshmukh, said Roy approached the Mathadi workers union for fixed deposits.

Roy asked the union to keep their money in FDs with SBI, and promised a high interest rate. In December 2018, the union made seven FDs totalling Rs 45 crore. Till April 2019, Roy assured them their FDs were intact. In May 2019, the office bearers suspected something amiss and found Rs 36 crore had been siphoned off.

Investigators found that the Rs 36 crore was transferred into four different accounts in Mumbai, Ichalkaranji, and Gujarat. Patel and other accuseds submitted bogus documents authorising the transfers. This included a fake letter from the labour board.

"Several bank accounts were opened before the fraud last year. The arrested homeopath had helped other accused open bank accounts," said an officer.

Patel, a Mulund resident, has been arrested earlier-for a Rs 7 crore banking fraud in Kalyan and a Rs 5 crore FD fraud in Sakinaka.

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