Pranlal Phultaria owes a cooperative bank more than Rs 58 crore but the Gujarat police saw nothing wrong in felicitating him for giving Rs 1.11 lakh for a police welfare fund.The Gujarat police have been left red in the face for honouring the absconder, accused in at least 10 cases related to the collapse of Charotar Nagrik Cooperative Bank. Phultaria was honoured at a function yesterday, where Minister of State for Home Amit Shah was guest of honour. The defaulter was among 14 others felicitated by DGP A.K. Bhargav for contributing towards the improvement of Sarkhej Police Station.Phultaria’s best defence came from the DGP himself — ‘‘He has paid all his dues through an arbitrator. He is crystal clear.’’The police seem to have ignored the fact that Phultaria is named in at least 10 cases in Anand district, all related to the January 2002 collapse of the bank. Bank officials said Phultaria had borrowed about Rs 30 crore from their Navrangpura branch in Ahmedabad from 1995-97 for his real estate business, Vaibhav Developers. Bank officials say he hasn’t repaid a paisa; worse, the property against which he had obtained a loan was mortgaged to another party.‘‘Including interest, he owes the bank Rs 58.58 crore,’’ said I.P. Joshi, who was appointed liquidator by the state. Phultaria had recently applied for ‘‘one-time settlement’’ of his dues. By RBI guidelines for cooperatives, the one-time settlement payable by Phultaria worked out to Rs 47 crore, but he wants it reduced to Rs 23 crore under guidelines set for nationalised banks. Senior officers are now trying to save face. Said SP (Ahmedabad Rural) Manoj Agarwal, who oversees Sarkhej: ‘‘It was a function organised by Karnavati Club for those who had donated money to our welfare fund. So, the list of top 10 donors was drawn up by them.”
