The MRA Marg police are investigating a cheating and forgery case involving the Fort-based Needs of Life Cooperative Bank. As part of its modus operandi to carry out fraudulent dealings, the bank authorities allegedly named a peon as a director and appointed a woman, who had no idea about it, as chairperson of the bank. The woman in question, Amita Mahajan told the police that she was befriended by the bank CEO Manisha Jadhav on a local train and made to sign some documents. In exchange, she was paid Rs 1,000 a month.The case was registered on September 19 and the MRA Marg police recorded the statement of Mahajan, who was named as chairperson of the bank, last week. Mahajan resides in a chawl at Badlapur and had met Jadhav while travelling in a train. In her statement, she said “I was told by Jadhav to sign some documents for which I would get Rs 1,000 every month. I had no idea that I was the chairperson of the bank.”Investigation by auditor Sushilkumar Shelar from the cooperatives department further revealed that a peon Netra Singh Rawat was made a director at the bank, and a Rs 25-lakh loan was passed in his name without his knowledge.In another instance, Geeta Salunke, a director at the bank, had passed a Rs 50-lakh loan in the names of security guards at the bank, Rajesh Jadhav and Vasudeo Vasnik. From this, Rs 20 lakh was later transferred to Salunke’s account while the remaining Rs 30 lakh went into the account of NC Corporation, one of the founders of the bank.The auditor’s probe exposed the irregularities carried out by the bank through various loans amounting to Rs 4.14 crore. The investigation was carried out on the basis of a complaint filed by one Geeta Shivdasani who had complained to the cooperatives department regarding irregularities in the bank’s functioning.Trouble started when Shivdasani, who held an account in the bank, wanted to transfer a loan she had taken at the bank to a nationalised bank. She said that the Needs of Life bank did not provide her with details of her loan account and even barred her from entering the premises, for which she filed police complaints thrice in 2015.She said, “In April 2015, I received a letter from the cooperative court stating that recovery of Rs 1 crore was due to be paid for my loan account to the Needs of Life bank. I was shocked as my loan account in 2012 showed Rs 12.75 lakh outstanding.” She further alleged that the bank’s vice-chairman Lal Ghanshani, CEO Manisha Jadhav and others had connived and filed false recovery proceedings against her. Following this, Shivdasani approached the deputy registrar’s office and filed a complaint against the bank.In their complaint to the police, auditor Sushil Kumar Shelar said, “The bank has flouted various rules set by the RBI (Reserve Bank of India), which includes not keeping records of borrowers, their income certificates, IT returns. Even their loan applications were approved without any guarantors. These loans were taken in the names of peons and security guards working at the banks and the money was then transferred to accounts of NC Corporation and various other accounts without any records. The loan amount was transferred to various NPA (nonperforming assets) in the bank to show that the bank was financially doing well.”Talking to Mumbai Mirror, bank CEO Manisha Jadhav, said “We haven’t duped any depositors and have only diverted funds into various NPA accounts. Our bank is financially strong and no fraud has happened.” When asked about Amita Mahajan, who was named as chairperson, she said, “Mahajan has resigned from the post after the case was filed and she isn’t part of the bank anymore.”Meanwhile, Ghanshani and Jadhav’s anticipatory bail was rejected by the sessions court and they are presently on interim protection granted by the High Court till December 7.