The arrest of Bank of Maharashtra's top brass by the Economic Offences Wing of the Pune police is part of a conscious attempt to damage the image of public sector banks and divert the attention from core issues, the All-India Bank of Maharashtra Employees’ Federation has alleged.

"The way in which investigative agencies are hounding bank officials, they will stop taking decisions on credit and this is what is happening today and this is reflected in figures.

"Thus, banks will discourage taking deposits and will loose market share to private sector banks or NBFCs. As a union we stand for defending PSBs and officials who are honest and sincere beyond doubt in discharging their roles and responsibilities," said Devidas Tuljapurkar, General Secretary of the Federation.

Bank of Maharashtra, in a stock exchange notice, said its MD & CEO RP Marathe, ED RK Gupta, and another officer had been called up by the EOW to its Pune office on June 20 for an enquiry in relation to the ongoing case of DS Kulkarni Developers Ltd. "Subsequently they have been granted police custody remand till June 27, 2018," said the notice.

While emphasising that the federation as a union is all for accountability of the top management, it alleged that the investigative agencies had overstepped looking at the way in which the bank's officials were taken into custody for interrogation and ultimately kept in custody just a day prior to the annual general meeting of the shareholders. This coincidence is inexplicable, it added.

The Pune-headquartered bank said its outstanding exposure to DS Kulkarni Developers Ltd is Rs 94.52 crore. Tuljapurkar said: "According to our information, the bank has initiated SARFAESI (recovery) action, symbolic possession has been taken, paper publication for auction of property has been given and the account is declared a wilful defaulter on March 18. The bank has adequate security and, thus, the bank’s interest is protected."

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