PMC Case: Former MD Joy Thomas Sent To Judicial Custody, Police Remand For Surjit Singh Arora

Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank case: A Mumbai court on Thursday sent Joy Thomas, former Managing Director of PMC Bank, to judicial custody for 14 days. The court also sent former Director Surjit Singh Arora to police remand till 22nd October. Thomas and Arora were produced in Mumbai's Esplanade court on Thursday.

Thomas, arrested earlier this month, is one of the key accused in the alleged Rs 4,355-crore scam at the city-based Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank. Real estate firm HDIL's promoters Rakesh Wadhawan and his son Sarang and the bank's former chairman, Waryam Singh, are the other accused in the scam. They are already in judicial custody till October 23.

Surjit Singh Arora was arrested by Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Wednesday. Arora was a director of the PMC Bank and was also on its loan committee.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear on Friday an urgent plea seeking directions for interim measures to safeguard the money of customers blocked in the bank. The plea on Wednesday for the apex court to step in amid 3 deaths linked to the crisis in the Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative(PMC) Bank came even as the bank’s administrator met the RBI’s top brass including Governor Shaktikanta Das and assured depositors that all efforts will be made to safeguard their interests.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed restrictions on the bank following the discovery of a Rs 4,355-crore scam. The limit on deposit withdrawals that has now been capped at Rs 40,000 over a six-month period has caused panic and distress among the depositors.

The Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW), which is investigating the fraud case, has found that since 2012, Thomas (62) had purchased nine flats and a shop in Kondhwa and other areas of Pune. These ten properties were purchased jointly by Thomas and his second wife, who was his former assistant at the bank, the officials said.

All these properties were bought by the husband-wife duo since the beginning of 2012, they said.

This was also the time when the Wadhawans of Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) began to default on loans taken from the bank, but kept borrowing additional amounts from the cooperative lender, they said. Thomas married his personal assistant at the bank after converting to Islam and acquired a new name, Junaid Khan, the officials said.