Pune police arrest 12 from across state in multi-crore BHR cooperative credit society ‘scam’

In 2015, following a complaint of cheating lodged at Kothrud police station by a senior citizen, Mukund Badve, and other depositors, Pune City Police had arrested 12 persons, including the chairman and directors of the BHR State Cooperative Credit Society. They are still lodged in jail.

The Society allegedly attracted depositors by offering 13 per cent interest rate on fixed deposits. Badve and many others like him deposited lakhs of rupees in the FDs but didn’t get the assured returns.

Later, as many as 81 cases were lodged in different police stations in the state in the ‘scam’, in which thousands of investors were allegedly duped to the tune of Rs 1,200 crore by misappropriation of their deposits.

Meanwhile, following a new case of cheating lodged by a 65-year-old retired teacher Ranjana Ghorpade at the Deccan police station in November last year, Pune City Police has arrested five persons, including the bank liquidator, in connection with the alleged scam.

Police said after the alleged scam came to light, a liquidator was appointed in 2016 who, instead of helping the investors, allegedly cheated them by conspiring with other accused and preparing forged documents of movable and immovable assets of the BHR State Cooperative Credit Society.

Despite having an official website, some of the accused allegedly hired an expert to set up a fake website of the society, on which false information regarding sale of its properties was posted. The accused allegedly also tried to scare the investors by saying the Society had gone bankrupt.