PMC Bank scam: Ex-director’s Police Remand Extended Till October 24
Mumbai: In another development in the PMC bank case, the Mumbai High Court on Tuesday extended the police remand of Surjit Singh Arora, former director of Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank, till October 24, arrested in connection with a crores of rupees scam at the bank.
Arora was arrested by the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police last week in connection with an alleged Rs 4,355 crore scam. After the police remand ended on Tuesday, he was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate SG Sheikh.
The court extended his police custody till Thursday. Arora is the fifth accused to be arrested in the case.
Apart from Arora, EOW has arrested former bank managing director Joy Thomas, its former chairman Variyam Singh, chairman and managing director of Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) Rakesh Wadhavan and his son Sarang Wadhawan in connection with the scam.
The EOW said last week that Arora was a director and key member of the lending committee of the bank until his affairs were taken up by the RBI.
HDIL group of companies were provided with large scale loan facilities, which involved fraud. Arora “sheltered” the alleged fraud.
The EOW also told the court that bank officials had replaced 44 loan accounts of HDIL with 21,049 fictitious accounts to snatch huge loan defaults by the real estate group that landed the bank in the current crisis.
The investigating agency said that Arora, along with other accused, played their alleged role in the crime.
“Arora was chosen over the directors’ body to ensure the proper functioning of the bank. However, he misused his official position to facilitate fraud.”
EOW had earlier this month filed a case against the top officials of Wadhawan and PMC Bank for a loss of Rs 4,355.43 crore to the bank.
After the scam surfaced in the bank, which has deposits of over Rs 11,000 crore, the Reserve Bank of India appointed an administrator on it, and withdrew Rs 40,000 per account for six months.
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