For long, co-operative banks have gotten away with lax compliance rules, deliberate rule breaking and cheating by the Directors and Office bearers. Another such case has come to light and the sheer audacity of it is shocking.
Akela
अँधा बांटै रेवड़ी, घरै- घराना खाये , this Hindi phrase fits aptly on Sital Harchandani, the BJP leader and Chairman of Navjeevan Co-operative Bank Ltd at Ulhasnagar. Sital Harchandani, under his capacity as Chairman of the bank, has granted loans to Directors, family members and other relatives and then deliberately waved off those loans.
Sital Harchandani is founder chairman of Navjeevan Co-operative Bank Ltd. With eight branches, the bank has its head office at Bhawani Saw Mill Compound, near Mayur hotel, Ulhasnagar- 421003, district Thane, Maharashtra. Sital Harchandani is a three time Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). There are two FIR’s of cheating registered against him.
ABI (abinet.org) is in possession of a document that can SHAME the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam’s investigators. Below is the list of some of the defaulters and their relation to the bank officials.
| Name | Relation | Amount |
| 1) Sital Harchandani | Self | 21,00,222.76 |
| 2) Meena Harchandani | Daughter | 11,00,875.75 |
| 3) Deepa Harchandani | Daughter | 14,00,220.00 |
| 4) Jawahar Watwani | Son-In-Law | 19,00,613.00 |
| 5) Gul J. Motiramani | Brother-In-Law | 2,82,301.00 |
| 6) Suresh Harchandani | Nephew | 5,71,212.00 |
| 7) Haresh Harchandani | Nephew | 1,21,908.00 |
| 8) Naresh Harchandani | Nephew | 3,20,616.00 |
| 9) Manoj Harchandani | Grandson | 3,00, 876.00 |
| 10) Dolly Harchandani | Relative | 16,220.00 |
| 11) Bachcharam Rupchandani | Director | 1,12,382.00 |
| 12) Bashomal Rupchandani | Bachcharama’s father | 9,66,880.00 |
| 13) Bhagwati Rupchandani | Bachcharam’s wife | 6,72,380.00 |
| 14) Deepak Rupchandani | Bachcharam’s relative | 2,00,112.80 |
| 15) Jethanand Gwalani | Ex-director | 28,00,439.00 |
| 16) Chetan Sharma | Ex-director | 1,35,890.00 |
| 17) Gurumukh Juriani | Brother of Ex-director | 8,66,116.00 |
Time and again, instances of Co-operative banks going belly up have occurred in the past, because of frauds by people in charge, and we hope that RBI as well as Officials investigate this and bring the culprits to book.
Second list will be updated soon.