Maharashtra: Probe Ordered Into Loans Given By Banks To Actor Riteish Deshmukh's Company

A probe has been ordered by a Maharashtra minister to determine whether cooperative banks committed irregularities in lending money to a company owned by actor Riteish Deshmukh and his wife.

Maharashtra Cooperative Minister Atul Save said On Wednesday that an investigation has been launched to determine whether cooperative banks any irregularities were made in extending loans to actor Riteish Deshmukh and his wife Genelia Deshmukh's agro-processing company.

Last month, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in Latur district claimed that during the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, the agro-processing company Desh Agro Pvt Ltd received an out-of-turn Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) plot in their hometown Latur.

State BJP leaders further claimed that the company requested a loan with the Pandharpur Urban Cooperative Bank on October 4, 2021, and that the bank accepted the Rs 4 crore credit on October 27. It requested for a loan with the Latur District Central Cooperative Bank, and on October 27th, a loan of Rs 61 crore was accepted. On July 25, 2022, it borrowed additional Rs 55 crore from the bank.

"Our (BJP's) Latur district president (Gurunath) Mage had written a letter (raising the issue). I don't know anything about the MIDC, but I have ordered an inquiry to check if there was any irregularity on the part of the banks," the state Cooperative Minister was quoted as saying by PTI. 

The department received the directions when BJP district president Gurunath Mage and deputy district president Pradip More wrote to the minister two weeks ago, armed with RTI information. More said that the bank granted 116 crores to a company with a share capital of only 7.5 crores within five months of the application. "We have now demanded the cancellation of the allotment and the dissolution of the bank’s board of directors,” Mage said on Tuesday.

Deshmukh is the son of the late Vilasrao Deshmukh, former Maharashtra chief minister, and Congress leader. His elder brother, Amit, served as a minister in the MVA government, while his younger brother also serves as a legislator in the Latur rural constituency.

(With Inputs From PTI)