MUMBAI, May 14 -- The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police has filed a 12,634-page charge sheet in the scam relating the New India Cooperative Bank, which surfaced in February. Police said they have named the eight arrested accused in the charge sheet, along with eight wanted accused, including the bank's former chairperson, Hiren Bhanu and his wife Gauri, who have fled the country. The charge sheet also names three external auditors, and three receivers, who were among the beneficiaries of the Rs.122 crore siphoned from the bank. "We have filed the charge sheet before the Metropolitan Magistrate court, Esplanade, in the New India Cooperative Bank case. It names around 45 witnesses who are bank officers, other staff and even taxi drivers; and 55 panchanamas. We have recorded statements of eight witness under section 188 of the BNSS, recording their confessions and statements. We have also seized properties worth Rs.167 crore in the case," said the police officer. Police said the charge sheet names Hitesh Mehta, 57, as the main accused. Mehta was the general manager (accounts) with the bank and was instrumental in siphoning off money from the bank's vaults. It also names as accused builder Dharmesh Paun, who had received money from Mehta and had used it to develop his Slum Rehabilitation Project in Kandivali's Charkop area; former CEO of the bank Abhimanyu Bhoan; businessman Manohar Arunachalam Marutwar; Mehta's neighbour, Kapil Dedhia; businessman Ullahanathan Arunachalam; former secretary of the state BJP, Hyder Azam Khan's brother Javed Iqbal; and Rajeev Ranjan Pandey. "We have also filed charges against proclaimed offenders, Hiren Bhanu, former chairperson of the bank, whose father Ranjit was the founder of the bank, and Hiren's wife Gauri. The charges have been filed under section 335 (recording evidence in the absence of an accused who has absconded) of the BNSS because they are on the run," said the police officer. "We have also filed charges against Ajay Singh Rathod, a Rajasthan resident; Pawan Jaiswal, a Jharkhand resident; and Shaukat Jamadar, a Karnataka resident," said the police officer. The police officer from the EOW said they were all beneficiaries of the Rs.122 crore siphoned from the bank. In a fresh development, the EOW has named Abhijit Deshmukh of Sanjay Rane and Associates; Laxminarayan Nayak of Shinde Nayak and Associates; and Subhash Mogal and others of S I Mogal and Company. "The three firms were external auditors, which carried out audits at the bank for several years. Despite this, they did not discover the discrepancies in the books of account," said the police officer. The EOW started investigating the bank after the Reserve Bank of India found Rs.122 crore missing from its cash reserves during a surprise audit on February 12 this year....