PMC Bank Case: Mumbai Court Sends HDIL Directors To Police Custody Till October 14

Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) Directors, Sarang Wadhawan and Rakesh Wadhwan, accused of loan default in the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank Ltd (PMC Bank) Case, have been sent to police custody till October 14 by Mumbai's Esplanade Court. The court also sent Waryam Singh former PMC chairman to police custody till October 14.

Meanwhile, Joy Thomas- former managing director of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank - has been sent to police custody till October 17. Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also frozen his bank accounts and fixed deposits of Rs 10 crore. The agency has also seized the private jet and cars of HDIL promoters. 

The EOW stated that PMC replaced 44 loan accounts of HDIL and its group companies, whose outstanding balance was significantly higher, with 21,049 fictitious loan accounts.

The bank’s board of directors and executives, including Thomas, had “full knowledge” of this act, police said.
EOW had registered an FIR on Monday against senior officials of HDIL and the PMC Bank for allegedly causing losses to the tune of Rs 4,355.43 crore to the bank.

Property of Rs 3,500 crore belonging to the company was seized by the EOW during the investigation, he said.The EOW had also appointed a special team to carry out investigations into the case.

As per the complaint, the bank officials, between 2008 and 2019, deliberately violated banking norms and showed false profits to mislead the authorities, although the bank was actually incurring losses.

It also said that the bank also veiled the group's large exposure and non-performing assets (NPAs) from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by creating dummy accounts.The bank had allegedly opened a number of dummy accounts to replace the stressed accounts held by Wadhawans-led HDIL.

Last week, the RBI barred the Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative Bank Ltd (PMC), Mumbai from carrying out the majority of its routine business transactions for a period of six months, sparking panic among the depositors and sending shockwaves in the city banking and business circles on Tuesday.