Waryam Singh, Suspended Chairman Of PMC Bank, Arrested

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police on Saturday arrested Waryam Singh, suspended chairman of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank, in connection with the alleged Rs 4,355 crore scam at the bank. This is the fourth arrest in the case.

The arrest comes a day after EOW arrested former managing director of PMC Bank Joy Thomas, and promoters of HDIL group Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan in the case. 

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. 

Earlier in the day, Thomas – who has been arrested in connection with the alleged Rs 4,355 crore scam at the bank - was remanded in police custody till October 17.

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police produced him before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S G Shaikh and told the court that they needed his custody to interrogate him as he was part of the conspiracy, adding that the bank provided various credit facilities to the bankrupt Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) group firms, most of it guided or committed by the accused.

It appears the funds availed by HDIL from the bank have not been used for the designated purpose, police told court.
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.

With PTI Inputs