The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police on Wednesday filed a second charge sheet into the ₹6,670 crore Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank fraud case.
The charge sheet, which goes beyond 12,000 pages, names seven former directors and auditors, including Rajneet Singh, the son of former Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Sardar Tara Singh. The charge sheet gives details of the irregularities at the bank and how the directors and auditors ensured that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) does not get to know about them.
Apart from Mr. Singh, directors Jagdish Mookhey, Trupti Bane and Mukti Bavisi have been booked in the case, along with auditors Jayesh Sanghani, Ketan Lakdawala and Anita Kirdat . They have all been charged for cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy, common intention under the Indian Penal Code and under provisions of the Banking Regulation Act.
The directors all knew about the loan accounts of Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) and had deliberately overlooked the irregularities to further the interests of its promoters Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan.
The EOW in its first charge sheet had described how the bank officials including managing director Joy Thomas and ex-chairman Waryam Singh had connived with others using 20,149 fictitious bank accounts to dupe the bank of ₹6,670 crore. The charge sheet said the directors and other officials of the bank unlawfully handed out loans to HDIL and its entities between 2008 and 2019.
In September 2019, the Enforcement Directorate had registered offences against HDIL, it directors and group companies under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The FIR named eight firms linked to HDIL.
An initial probe by the RBI had revealed that directors of PMC Bank had replaced 44 suspicious loan accounts linked with the HDIL with fictitious bank accounts whose individual balances were low. According to EOW, the banking software was tampered to ensure this was left virtually hidden from the care banking system.
HDIL accounted for nearly 73% of PMC Bank’s total loan. Of the ₹4,355.46 crore loans under scanner, ₹2,145.78 crore were transferred to accounts held by the Wadhawans.
