On Friday, The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police submitted its chargesheet before the Metropolitan Magistrate Court, against the scam-hit PMC (Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative) Bank. The chargesheet runs into 32,959 pages and brings to light some more facts in this case that were not known so far.
One such fact is that, apart from the loans extended to HDIL promoters, then MD of the bank, Joy Thomas had opened a special cash facility counter for Wadhawans. What’s more, the staff was asked not to keep a record of this cash that was being extended to the Wadhawans and Waryam Singh, who at that time was the chairman of PMC.
Despite the strict instructions some of the staff members maintained a diary that has the record of all the cash that was extended to Wadhawans and Waryam Singh. The EOW chargesheet also mentions that even the register of attendance for important meetings, where loans worth crores of rupees were sanctioned, was tampered with. The names of the directors mentioned in the minutes of the meeting are not in the attendance sheet.
The chargesheet contains statements of nearly 340 witnesses and names five people as accused. The accused are: HDIl promoters Rakesh Wadhawan and Sarang Wadhawan, Joy Thomas, Waryam Singh, and Surjit Singh Arora (former director of PMC Bank).
In addition to these, police have also arrested seven other bank officials and they will be filing a supplementary chargesheet against them later.
In regards to this case, an RTI was also filed by a PTI journalist, regarding the financial position of the bank. Responding to that, RBI has issued a statement that, "The inspection report is yet to be finalised as inspection of the bank with respect to its financial position as on March 31, 2019, is under progress”.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had issued a notice to the bank to shut down its operations from September 23. Post this, an atmosphere of panic had spread amongst the PMC Bank account-holders who were unable to withdraw money from their own accounts.
Initially, the withdrawal limit was set at ₹1,000 per account holder which was later revised to ₹10,000. In the month of October, this limit was revised to ₹25,000 and subsequently to ₹50,000.
Also Read: PMC Bank Crisis: Bombay HC Asks RBI To File Affidavit Stating Steps Taken For Depositors
Taking into note the number of medical emergencies by the depositors, RBI stated that depositors can withdraw ₹50,000 only in a case of medical emergency but now the same amount is applicable for everyone.
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