A special investigation team (SIT) of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police arrested absconding former MD of PMC Bank Joy Thomas today. They had been on the lookout for Joy Thomas and the bank’s former chairman Waryam Singh who were absconding ever since EOW arrested the HDIL chairman and managing director Rakesh Wadhawan and his son Sarang, co-accused in the Punjab Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank scam on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the EOW also produced Rakesh Wadhawan and his son Sarang before a local court, which in turn, sent the duo to police custody till October 9.
Bandra office and residential properties of Sarang and Rakesh Wadhawan were searched and property of Rs 3,500 crore belonging to the company was seized by the EOW during the investigation.
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The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police had filed an FIR on September 30 (Monday) against HDIL and Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank officials in the PMC bank fraud case. The persons named in the FIR include PMC bank’s former chairman Waryam Singh, former Managing Director Joy Joseph Thomas, Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) group promoters Sarang Wadhawan and Rakesh Wadhawan.
The EOW has filed cases under Sections 409 (Criminal breach of trust), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly), 465 (forgery), 466 (Forgery of record ), 471 (using forged document as genuine) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. EOW has also formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case. The FIR says that irregularities worth ₹4,355.46 crores have been committed in the case, although the amount can go up during the course of the investigation.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also initiated an investigation by registering a case of money laundering, another official said. ED officials raided six places in the city and suburbs and collected some important documents related to the case, he said.
The RBI has already dismissed the board of governors of PMC bank and has appointed an administrator. The bank has been put the bank under restrictions, putting a limit of ₹1000 withdrawal by depositors initially, which was later raised to ₹10000 and ₹25000. The bank is also not allowed to give any loan without the prior approval of RBI. The restrictions have been put for six months after RBI was informed about the PMC Bank fraud by a whistleblower inside the bank.
An official of the had EOW said that “the manager has lodged a complaint on the behest of the RBI appointed administrator. His complaint is the starting point of the probe”. He also said that although the police believe the scam amount to be above ₹6000 crores, the amount of ₹4,355.46 crores was mentioned by the complainant and the same has been mentioned in the FIR.