PUNE: The sitting MLC from Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Anil Bhosale who is also director of the Shivajirao Bhosale Cooperative Bank Limited, was arrested by Pune city police Crime Branch on Tuesday night along with three others for an alleged fraud of Rs 71.78 crore involving the bank’s funds.

The other three arrested are the bank’s chief executive officer Tanaji Padwal, director Suryaji Jadhav and officer Shailesh Bhosale. They will be produced before a city court in the afternoon today.

Additional Commissioner of Police (crime) Ashok Morale said, “The accused persons were  arrested after their roles were established in the fraud."

According to police, the accused persons misappropriated Rs 71.78 crore by way of fudging entries in the bank’s cash balance records and siphoning off the amount to some other accounts for their personal benefits.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during the financial year 2018-19 had ordered an audit of the bank deposits after reports of irregularities surfaced. The audit report revealed that Bhosale and other accused prepared forged and fraudulent entries wherein the facts were fudged to manipulate the accounts register of the bank. The total fraud has been estimated to be worth Rs71.78 crores.

Based on complaint from Chartered accountant Yogesh Lakade (29), an independent auditor, who conducted an audit of the bank on the directions of the RBI, an FIR was registered with Shivajinagar police station in January this year.