The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police on Monday registered an FIR against Joy Thomas, managing director of the beleagured Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank, other officials of the bank and real estate firm HDIL.
Last week, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had imposed restrictions on withdrawal of deposits from the bank in light of the financial crisis plaguing the bank. A subsequent inquiry by the central bank revealed that over 70% of the bank’s total loans, running into several thousands of crore, were issued to the HDIL group.
EOW officers said the FIR followed a formal complaint from Jasbir Singh Matta, a PMC Bank branch manager, on Monday. “Mr. Matta was instructed by the RBI-appointed administrator to give a complaint. After he did so, we registered an FIR,” Joint Commissioner of Police (EOW) Rajvardhan Sinha said.
Officials said the complainant has named Mr. Thomas, PMC chairman Waryam Singh, and HDIL director Sarang Wadhwa among others. “The complaint said that from 2008 to 2019, certain loans which had actually become non-performing assets were declared performing assets, and that this fraudulent projection was shown to the RBI, causing a loss of ₹4,355 crore to the bank, according to a preliminary estimate,” an EOW officer said.
According to the complaint, the officer said, HDIL was the main defaulter of these loans, which was hidden from the RBI in a conspiracy between the bank’s officials and HDIL.
The EOW has booked the accused named in the complaint for cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery, and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code. “A special investigation team has been constituted to probe the matter. We will first examine the information we have received from the RBI and all documents from the bank, and on that basis will start questioning the accused,” the officer said.
Meanwhile, a group of activists, lawyers, and chartered accountants, who are account holders at PMC Bank, moved Bombay High Court on Monday seeking to quash the direction issued by the RBI imposing a restriction on withdrawal limit of ₹10,000 for six months.
