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Ex-chief of MMCB arrested

Our Bureau

GANDHINAGAR, April 30

THE former Chairman of the Madhavpura Mercantile Co-operative Bank (MMCB), Mr Ramesh Parikh, was placed under arrest in a nursing home in Ahmedabad this morning.

The Minister of State for Home, Mr Haren Pandya, told newspersons here on Monday that armed guards had been posted outside the nursing home.

Mr Pandya hinted that some officials of the Reserve Bank of India and the MMCB, who have been prima facie found involved in the racket during the investigations by the Economic Offences Cell of the crime branch police, could be arrested.

In addition to the charge of cheating and defrauding the bank, the State Government had also added Sec 468 of IPC pertaining to alleged falsification of bank documents. This could lead to the use of the non-bailable Prevention of Anti-Social Activities A ct (PASA).

The Government has also issued transfer warrants against Mr Jagdish Pandya, the Manager of the MMCB Mandvi branch in Mumbai, through which most of the funds were diverted to the stock broker. Mr Pandya said the State Government had appointed Mr Akhil Des ai as the special public prosecutor to deal with the cases concerning the MMCB.

Meanwhile, the Government was dispatching a medical team to the nursing home to check whether Mr Parikh was ``faking'' chest pain to avoid arrest. Mr Parikh, who was released on bail earlier in Mumbai from his arrest by the CBI for allegedly cheating the bank depositors to fund the stock broker, Mr Ketan Parekh, on his return to Ahmedabad had admitted himself in the nursing home for chest pain where he was placed under arrest.