EOW filed 32,000- page charge sheet against the promoters of HDIL and others.

The Economic Offenses Wing of Mumbai Police On Friday, in a Metropolitan magistrate court, filed a 32,000-page charge sheet against five persons at multi-crore Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank scam.

The charge sheet has been marked by Joy Thomas, former director of the bank, Waryam Singh, former chairman, Surjit Singh Arora former director of the bank, along with Rakesh Wadhawan and Sarang Wadhawan, promoters of Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL).

According to various sections of the Indian Penal Code, the accused has been charged with cheating, fraud, destruction of evidence and forgery of documents.

In September this year, all five suspects were arrested shortly after the fraud in the bank scam, and are currently in judicial custody.  Besides these five, seven other bank officials were also arrested by the Police and supplementary charge sheet will be filed against them later.

The 32,000-page charge sheet includes a PMC bank’s forensic audit report and records of properties purchased by the bank’s accused representatives with kickbacks obtained for giving HDIL and Wadhawans unjustifiable favour.

The charge sheet contains statements of 340 witnesses that include bank account holders. In compliance with section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the police reported the declaration of four critical witnesses before a court.

In September of this year, the PMC Bank fraud came to light when Reserves Bank of India discovered, allegedly, that the Bank had established fictitious accounts to hide loans of around Rs 6,700 crore extended to almost bankrupt HDIL.

The RBI reports that 44 problematic loan accounts, including HDIL loan accounts, were masked by the PMC bank through the interference with its core banking system, and only limited employees were able to access its accounts. The city police’s EOW and Enforcement Directorate has registered offences in the case.

RBI placed regulatory limits on the bank on 23 September 2019. In the beginning, the withdrawal limit was held at Rs 1,000 per day, gradually increased to Rs 50,000.

Source: Economic Times