FIR registered against senior HDIL, PMC officials in 4,355 crore bank scam
The FIR was filed against PMC bank’s erstwhile chairman Waryam Singh, MD Joy Thomas, another bank official, HDIL promoters Sarang & Rakesh Wadhawan, and seven realty companies
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police on Monday registered an FIR against senior officials of HDIL and PMC bank in connection with the Rs 4,355 crore fraud case.
Although the fraud amount has been pegged at Rs 4,355 crore as of now, it could go up during the course of the investigation.
The diversion of funds from the bank to the troubled real estate firm prompted RBI to curb the lender’s activities and restrict access to money deposited by thousands of its customers.
“EOW has formed a special investigation team for the probe. The FIR has been registered on the complaint given by one Jasbir Singh Matta, who was authorised by RBI administrator with Mumbai Police,” police said in a press note.
The FIR names PMC bank’s erstwhile chairman Waryam Singh, managing director Joy Thomas and another bank official.
The names of HDIL’s promoters Sarang and Rakesh Wadhawan, and seven realty companies through which funds were allegedly diverted are also included in the FIR.
According to the police, PMC bank officials gave loans to HDIL between the year 2008 and August 2019 despite no repayment of the previous loans. More than two-thirds of PMC Bank’s loan exposure is to the now-bankrupt HDIL.
The FIR was registered under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 466 (forgery of record of court or public register), 471 (using a forged document as genuine) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
The bank’s suspended MD Joy Thomas had on Friday admitted that the bank did not report the financial exposure to the RBI for over six years.
On September 23 evening, the RBI had put a slew of restrictions on the bank for six months citing major financial irregularities, failure of internal control and under-reporting of its exposures under various off-site surveillance reports.
The restrictions included curbs on fresh lending, accepting fresh deposits and investments, among others.
The withdrawal limit for account holders was also kept at Rs 1,000 for six months, which was later raised to Rs 10,000. The regulator also dismissed the board, suspended Thomas and appointed J B Bhoria as the administrator at the bank.
