The economic offences wing (EOW) of Pune police on Wednesday arrested Mandar Agashe, former director of the Suvarna Co-operative Bank, for his alleged involvement in the Rs 436.74-crore fraud. Mandar is the son of prime accused Dnyaneshwar Chandrashekhar Agashe, former chairman of the bank, who died on January 2.

EOW had booked 21 former office-bearers of the bank, of whom 15 persons, including Dnyaneshwar Agashe, 67, his wife Rekha and son Ashutosh, were arrested on November 22 last year.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW) Rajendra Dahale said his team has arrested Mandar, one of the 21 accused in the case. Mandar’s father Dnyaneshwar Agashe, who was in magisterial custody, had died of heart failure at Sassoon Hospital.

Mandar was not arrested earlier because he was in Germany. He had come to Pune last month for attending rituals after his father’s death.

Mandar was produced before the Shivajinagar court on Wednesday afternoon. Judicial Magistrate (first class) G G Itkalkar remanded him in police custody till February 11.

Public prosecutor A V Ausekar told the court that Mandar was director of the bank between 1998 and 2006. He sanctioned 21 forged loan proposals to the tune of Rs 82.2 lakh. Adding interest, the amount has now gone up to Rs 113.69 crore.

Ausekar said Mandar had 19 companies and the police custody of Mandar was required to check if his companies were original. Mandar’s counsel Shrikant Shivade argued that the high court had granted bail to Ashutosh Agashe in the case. “The bail order mentions that only Rs 40 crore of loans are remaining. Agashe family has also attached their property to the bank, which includes a bungalow, land located in Pandharpur and shares of Brihan Maharashtra Sugar Syndicate,” he said.

Police, however, suspect that Mandar had developed pressure on Ashutosh and Dnyaneshwar Agashe for sanctioning the loan for his companies. According to them, the Agashes and other accused had sanctioned huge loans only to selected persons and earned money for themselves. Of the total loan given by the bank, 89 per cent of the amount was sanctioned to only five per cent of loan borrowers, thus cheating the depositors.

End of the road Cops shoot dead murderer who jumped parole

The crime branch of city police and Navi Mumbai police gunned down two gangsters, including contract killer Mubin Isak Shaikh of Pune, in a joint operation on Wednesday. The police teams killed the gangsters in a daylight encounter at Taloja in Navi Mumbai.

Senior police inspector Bharat Shelke of Navi Mumbai police said: “Mubin had gone missing after he was released on parole from the Yerwada jail a few months ago. Since then, the Pune police were searching for him. The Pune police on Wednesday received a tip-off that Mubin was in Navi Mumbai.”

“It was learnt that Mubin was at Vishal Restaurant on Mumbra¿Panvel Highway. A police team, comprising inspector Ram Jadhav of Pune, assistant inspector Devidas Geware and police sub-inspector Anil Patil of Navi Mumbai, laid a trap at the spot around 4.15 pm,” Shelke said.

“Police asked the gangsters to surrender. But they opened fire on the police team. In retaliation, police fired around five bullets which hit both the gangsters. The two were rushed to a hospital in Panvel, where they were pronounced dead,” Shelke said.

Bulletproof jackets were provided to all the policemen in the operation. A bullet fired by the gangsters hit constable Mahadev Dimble, but he remained safe because of the bulletproof jacket. Police have recovered two 9 mm revolvers from the gangsters. Investigations are on to ascertain the identity of Mubin’s accomplice and that whether they were associated with the organised crime syndicate in Mumbai.