New Delhi, Nov 20 (IANS): The chairman and secretary of a private cooperative society have been arrested in Uttar Pradesh for issuing a fake bank guarantee of Rs.4.76 crore in favour of a private company, Delhi Police said Thursday.

Prabha Kant Chaturvedi, chairman and Rajesh Kumar Dwivedi, secretary of Cownpore Swadeshi Urban Cooperative Bank, which was banned in 1988 by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), were arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Delhi Police Monday from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

Another accused Anirudh Kumar Shukla, former secretary of the society, is absconding, police said.

The case was registered on the complaint of a Delhi-based company Comex Infratech Pvt. Ltd. It alleged that the officials of Cownpore Swadeshi Urban Cooperative Bank issued a fake bank guarantee in favour of a private company GKR Infratech Pvt. Ltd.

The complainant alleged that Devender Kumar Singh, director, GKR Infratech Pvt. Ltd. had submitted the fake bank guarantee worth Rs.4,76,50000 for getting the contract for the development of Jawasa-Sunarpura and Pawai-Prithvipura state highway in Madhya Pradesh.

"The bank guarantee was given by the officials of Cownpore Swadeshi Urban Cooperative Bank. The complainant, Comex Infratech entered into contract with GKR Infratech and disbursed funds worth Rs.4 crore as mobilisation money," Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW) Mangesh Kashyap said.

The contract between Comex Infratech and GKR Infratech was cancelled and the alleged banker failed to honour the bank guarantee, Kashyap said.

He said it was found that Cawnpore Swadeshi Urban Cooperative Bank was not authorised to issue any bank guarantee according to the RBI report and registrar of cooperatives society, Uttar Pradesh.