The Mumbai police Economic Offences Wing (EOW), probing the Rs 122-crore New India Cooperative Bank scam, on Friday said it has received the report of brain-mapping test of prime accused and former GM Hitesh Mehta and it has come positive.
A senior EOW officer confirmed the development to The Indian Express saying that the result of Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature (BEOS) profiling, a forensic psychology technique, of Mehta has arrived and it is positive.
“It is indicative of his role and role of other accused such as ex-chairman Hiren Bhanu (wanted by the EOW), CEO Abhimanyu Bhoan, Mehta’s friends Arunachalam Ullahanathan Maruthuvar, Dharmesh Paun and others for their involvement in the scam,” the officer said.
The forensic test was performed at the Kalina Forensic Laboratory. “Although the result of the brain-mapping test cannot be used as direct evidence against Mehta, it corroborates our investigation’s findings and helped us establish his role,” another EOW officer said.
On March 11, the polygraph test, also known as lie detector test, was conducted on Mehta by experts at the Kalina forensic lab as he allegedly kept changing his statements regarding the money transactions during questioning and did not cooperate with the probe.
The result of the test had shown he was deceptive throughout the scientific test and much information could not be extracted from him. Hence, it was decided to subject Mehta to a brain mapping test.
According to EOW, Mehta had been allegedly stealing money from the bank’s safe from 2019 to 2025 and handed it over to his two close accomplices — Dharmesh Paun and Ullahanathan — who helped misappropriate the funds. The police said after the fraud was discovered during an RBI inspection at the bank’s Prabhadevi and Goregaon branches on February 12, Mehta confessed to the crime and revealed the roles of other accused persons.
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The other accused arrested in the case are the bank’s former CEO Ambhimanyu Bhoan, Ullahanathan’s son Manohar, and Kapil Dedhia.
Former bank chairman Hiren Bhanu and his wife and vice-chairperson Gauri Bhanu, who are abroad, are wanted in the case.
Bhanu has claimed in the complaint letter that on February 12 when the RBI was carrying out a check at the bank, Mehta had disappeared and later admitted before Bhanu that he embezzled funds in the past.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd