A Metropolitan Magistrate’s court in Mumbai on Monday extended the police custody of the Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) directors and Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank Limited’s former chairman for their alleged role in the ₹4,355-crore PMC Bank fraud, till Wednesday.
The custody of Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan and PMC Bank ex-chairman Waryam Singh was extended after the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police told the court that new details have emerged during investigation.
When Additional Chief Magistrate S.G. Shaikh questioned the EOW on the progress of the probe, an official said the fact that PMC Bank’s managing director Joy Thomas owns nine properties in Pune has come to light, which needs to be investigated further.
The EOW claimed Mr. Singh had worked for many HDIL group companies in the past, and because of his association with the Wadhawans, he had helped them acquire a huge amount as loans from the bank. It has also come to light that the Wadhawans had diverted the loans obtained from PMC Bank to clear their dues with Bank of India, the official said.
EOW is also checking whether the accused invested in benami properties from the loan money, and is going through the lockers and accounts of the accused with financial institutions.
Neither the Wadhawans’ lawyer nor Mr. Singh’s lawyer opposed the EOW’s plea for extension in custody, following which the judge remanded them in custody till Wednesday.
