Bank fraud in Barshi

It was a chilly December morning in 2021. Fog lined the roads as Amar Thorbole rode 70 kilometers towards the district police chief’s office in Solapur, Maharashtra. He carried with him a can of diesel and a matchbox.

Thorbole parked his bike, slowly uncorked the can and poured diesel all over himself even as he continued walking towards the police station. He struck the match. The hiss came first. The police came later.

In the two months leading up to this incident, loan recovery agents in his hometown of Barshi had been threatening the 38-year-old Thorbole and his family, holding him liable for a loan five times more than what he had asked for. And the police had refused to investigate his case because the men who allegedly defrauded him held significant political clout.

A year earlier, in May 2020, Thorbole, who belongs to the Maratha community, had planned to scale up his fresh snacks business. He purchased a plot of land using a sizable chunk of his savings. He planned to sell spices along with breakfast items like poha and vada that he was already serving at the stall; he also wanted to build a storage facility on the plot.

He decided to take out a loan of Rs. 5 lakh. Thorbole chose to apply for a loan at the Shiv Shakti Urban Co-Operative Bank because the branch manager, Ganesh Barangule, was a business partner of Thorbole’s former employer, Yuvraj Barangule.

The familiarity ensured that when Ganesh asked Thorbole to sign the papers again because “there was a mistake in the earlier application,” both Thorbole and his wife thought it a routine matter.

In early July (2020), Ganesh informed him that the loan had come through and asked him to deposit 10 signed blank cheques as guarantee for the loan repayments.

The couple complied without question. “We had a good relationship,” says Thorbole’s wife, Sujata, 34. “We trusted them [Ganesh and Yuvraj].”

The trust held out for a year and then recovery agents barged into their home and threatened Sujata that the bank would confiscate their property if Thorbole didn’t continue repaying his housing loan of Rs. 25 lakhs. “I was confused,” she says.

Thorbole, who studied until Class 9, was perplexed. He thought this was a misunderstanding and rushed to the bank. There, Ganesh allegedly informed Thorbole, in a matter-of-fact tone, that he had converted the application for a business loan into a housing loan in Thorbole’s name, and had withdrawn some of it for his own business.

Stunned, Thorbole confronted Ganesh and received a contemptuous response. “You used to wash dishes at our restaurant,” Ganesh retorted. “Who the hell are you to question us?”

In panic, Thorbole threatened to approach the police and rushed out of the bank. But a couple of bank employees intercepted him with a veiled threat. “Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill,” Thorbole recalls the conversation. “Your loan accounts would be corrected within two months.” Thorbole agreed, considering that he didn’t have much of a choice – he was an ordinary man and the people he was up against had serious clout in the town.

Ganesh Barangule denied Thorbole’s version of events. “He himself got the loan application changed from Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 25 lakh,” he said. “How could we change it like that?”

However, on December 30, 2021, Ganesh would later confess to the police that he, along with two of his associates, had committed fraud and misappropriated the bank and its clients’ money. Upon being asked about the affidavit, he feigned ignorance, and when this reporter messaged him, he did not reply.

Soon after, Thorbole began running from pillar to post to break out of the financial quagmire he was fraudulently pushed into. He approached the police station with hope. But, “we were told to not antagonise them,” Sujata recalls. “They are powerful people with political contacts.”

Utterly dejected, Thorbole marched into the Solapur police station, ready to immolate himself.

Maharashtra is home to about 489 cooperative banks meant to service those that bigger banks don’t. They were set up to provide affordable credit to low income groups, particularly artisans and farmers.

According to Rajya Sabha records, since 2020, India’s public sector banks have waived over Rs. 3 lakh crore due from large industries and services, weakening their position to extend credit.

The smaller cooperative banks are in an even worse position.

Under pressure from local political leaders, many cooperative banks extended low-interest credit to big businesses such as sugar factories, cotton mills and construction companies without proper appraisals, leading to mounting bad loans and losses. Widespread political interference and misappropriation of assets has led to several cooperative banks facing liquidation; many are barely able to continue operating.

The Shiv Shakti Urban Co-Operative Bank is an alarming representation of what ails the cooperative banking sector.

Founded in 1998 with the blessings of former Shiv Sena Member of Parliament Shivaji Kamble, the bank was housed in two rooms of a Barshi-based educational institution, Shivaji Shikshan Prasarak Mandal. Employees are predominantly the bank’s shareholders, says Nandakumar Jagdale, vice president of the institution and a shareholding member of the bank.

Kamble had wanted the employees of the educational institute to have a bank they could call their own. But as the years rolled on, the bank onboarded more shareholders and “today, it works under the influence of Rajendra Raut and his close associates,” says Jagdale. Raut is a former MLA with the Bharatiya Janata Party, and on June 22, 2026, he became an MLC. This reporter reached out to Raut for a comment. The story will be updated when he responds.

In 2022-23, almost a year later, an independent Pune-based chartered accounting firm, Shashank Patki and Associates, carried out an audit of the bank. Their report would later become the basis of a case in the sessions court of Barshi, filed by local activist Manish Deshpande.

According to the report, Raut and his family received a loan of over Rs. 9 crore when the bank’s disbursement limit was only Rs. 3.3 crore – three times the limit.

Ganesh, however, said that the loans haven’t become NPAs (non-performing assets). He added that in fairness, the bank has closed down several accounts related to Raut. “Initially, we had 11 accounts of him and his family,” he said. “Now it is down to five.”

The audit further pointed out two problematic individual loans the bank extended: Raut and Yuvraj both got a loan of Rs. 3 crore each when their personal credit limit was under Rs. 2 crore.

The audit pointed out more serious irregularities and corruption: over 60 loans and cash credits totalling more than Rs. 41 crore had been given without proper paperwork. The audit also noted that the bank had not asked for mandatory salary slips, collateral or income tax returns in many of these cases. In some cases, the monthly instalment was more than the monthly salary of the borrower.

When members of the bank’s board raised issues with the bank’s functioning at a general body meeting in September 2024, also attended by the bank’s chairperson, an inquiry committee was formed with Jagdale at the helm. The report it produced was startling.

The inquiry report said that Ganesh Barangule, the Barshi branch manager, Yuvraj Barangule, his business partner, and Suyog Burgute, son of the bank chairperson, used the bank’s money for their personal businesses. The report documented questionable loans totaling over Rs. 25 crore to eight entities – all of which are directly or indirectly linked to the trio, and include a real estate business from which Thorbole had purchased his plot.

In one instance, the bank loaned Rs. 1.4 crore in 2023 to a business establishment, Hotel Santro, whose monthly installment came up to Rs. 1.9 lakh when their monthly income was Rs. 43,000; both Ganesh and Yuvraj are partners in the hotel. Hotel Rutu Lodge was loaned Rs. 1.4 crore, with a monthly instalment of Rs. 1.9 lakh when its monthly income was Rs. 36,000. In another instance, a stone crusher unit received Rs. 1.1 crore at a monthly installment of Rs. 2.15 lakh when its monthly income was just over Rs. 71,000.

“These businesses don’t show what they actually earn,” said Ganesh, plainly stating the facts. “But we are locals. We know what they are worth. That’s why we extended these loans.” He said the monthly incomes cited in Jagdale’s report are figures on paper, and more importantly, the RBI hasn’t found any problems with their work.

In hindsight, it made sense to Thorbole why a bank employee had snapped at him when he asked to see his loan application file. “Be grateful you are getting a loan,” he was told. The recovery agents that barged into Thorbole’s house essentially pressured him to repay the money allegedly usurped by Ganesh and Yuvraj.

Thorbole’s bank statement shows just over Rs. 29 lakh credited in his account in multiple installments within three months after he applied for a loan of Rs. 5 lakh. However, in many instances, the credited amount was transferred in its entirety, on the same day, to accounts belonging to Yuvraj. In other instances, the amount was withdrawn using the cheques. Thorbole’s account was swiftly drained. He says he only withdrew Rs. 2.25 lakh in that period.

Thorbole said these transactions went unnoticed as he does not get SMS notifications on his phone, and confirming details via passbook was difficult as during the covid-19 pandemic, restrictions were placed on interacting with bank staff.

Deshpande, the activist, had also filed a complaint at the Barshi police station against irregularities at the bank. That, along with the audit report, prompted an inquiry by the Commissioner for Cooperation, Pune. Their report, which came out in January 2026, corroborated earlier reports as it noted irregularities in 24 loans the bank granted, including the ones extended to Raut and his relatives.

Public representatives, political workers and influential businessmen are misusing cooperative banks, alleges Deshpande. In December 2025, Deshpande filed a complaint with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) against the chartered accountant of the bank for allowing irregularities. “But there is no accountability from anyone,” he says.

“Where is the common man supposed to go?” Sujata asks. “There is no law and order. This is supposed to be the land of the progressive thinkers.”

The case based on Jagdale’s report is with the district Deputy Registrar, Solapur, which falls under the Department of Co-operation, Marketing and Textiles of the Government of Maharashtra. Deshpande’s case is being heard by the session court, Barshi.

When Thorbole attempted to set himself on fire at the police station, police personnel held him by his collar and detained him in the Solapur police station for attempting to die by suicide. “I sat there for three hours soaked in diesel,” Thorbole recalls, adding that he was treated as if he was a criminal. “My skin had turned pale.” A police man roared at him, “We will charge you with crimes you haven’t committed…You will never get out [of jail].”

The ordeal lasted a whole day, says Thorbole. “Nobody even offered me a glass of water. Eventually, a journalist who had come to cover my story shared his water bottle with me.”

Balaji Kukde, Police Inspector, Barshi police station, denied working under any kind of pressure, and refused to comment further. “That’s all I will say,” he sternly told this reporter.

According to Thorbole, the Additional Superintendent of Police, Solapur, Himmat Jadhav, directed bank officials to sell his plot along with the structure he had built over it – as the property was mortgaged against the loan – to a private party, to settle Ganesh and his associate’s debt to the bank.

“The deal was finalised at Rs. 33 lakh,” Thorbole says, adding that he got only Rs. 5 lakh from the deal as Rs. 28 lakh were taken by the bank to settle the debt.

The police officers then directed Ganesh and Yuvraj to give Rs. 28 lakh to Thorbole along with an additional Rs. 1 lakh for his troubles. The police also instructed Yuvraj to return the Rs. 2 lakh that Thorbole, during his employment with Yuvraj, had given him, as part of a goodwill understanding, as safekeeping.

Yuvraj gave two cheques of Rs. 15.5 lakh each as part of the final settlement. But the cheques bounced. Thorbole approached the police after the cheques bounced considering it had mediated the settlement between him and the bank. But his complaint, once again, was ignored.

“The case is going on in the district court of Solapur,” Thorbole says. “God knows how long that will last.”

He was right back where he started: The bank had defrauded him and the police were indifferent. Except this time, he didn’t threaten an extreme step. “If I kill myself, who will look after my kids?” he asked.

Thorbole, now 42 years old, and Sujata have a 20-year old daughter who is studying engineering at a college in Barshi, and a 19-year old son, who quit his studies to help his father at the stall, and drives a truck to earn an additional income.

“We don’t have money to educate our son,” Sujata said, as she broke down. “He wanted to be a government employee. He wanted to study, and do what his father couldn’t. Somewhere we feel as if we failed our son. My child’s future has been destroyed.”

Besides the guilt of pulling the plug on their son’s schooling, Sujata constantly worries about the safety of her family after having antagonised powerful people in town. Her faith in state institutions and mechanisms has plummeted.

“I live in perpetual fear,” she confessed. “Will my husband return home after work? My daughter goes to college on her scooter every day. Should I let her go or not? What if they come for us one night? I constantly have a feeling of being watched.”

To rub salt on their wounds, Thorbole says the people that fleeced him openly roam freely around in Barshi.

“I, on the other hand, am eternally looking over my shoulder.”