Bank of Maharashtra divests MD R P Marathe and ED R K Gupta of their powers

In a major development, the board of Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) has divested managing director R P Marathe and executive director R K Gupta of their powers with immediate effect. Both Marathe and Gupta, who were arrested by the Economic Offence wing of the Pune Police in an alleged cheating case, are currently on bail. The board has asked the government to make suitable arrangement for smooth functioning of the bank. The board of directors of the bank in its meeting held today decided that “R P Marathe, managing director and CEO, and R K Gupta executive director of bank be divested of all functional responsibilities with immediate effect,” Bank of Maharashtra said in a regulatory filing to stock exchanges.

Meanwhile, the board decided that executive director A C Rout to be entrusted with all functional responsibilities of managing director and CEO and other executive director. Last week, Economic Offence Wing of Pune police arrested Bank of Maharashtra’s MD and CEO Ravindra Marathe and other top officials of the bank in connection with a cheating case lodged against D S Kulkarni and his wife Hemanti.

In May, the city police had filed a 37,000-page chargesheet against DSK and his wife in the case. According to the chargesheet, the total “scam” is worth Rs 2,043.18 crore, wherein the accused floated nine different firms to siphon off funds collected from 33,000 investors and fixed-deposit (FD) holders, who were promised good returns on their FDs.

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Former Chairman and Managing Director Sushil Muhnot who was arrested in the case too was granted bail. Last month, the board of PNB divested executive directors K V Brahmaji Rao and Sanjiv Sharan of their powers in connection with the USD 2-billion fraud perpetrated by billionaire diamond jeweller Nirav Modi.

Allahabad Bank too take away all the powers of its CEO and MD Usha Ananthasubramanian, former chief of Punjab National Bank, in connection with the same fraud. Ananthasubramanian was the MD and CEO of PNB from 2015 to 2017 and was questioned recently by the CBI in connection with the case.