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PMC bank fraud: EOW files second charge sheet
The economic offences wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police on Wednesday filed a 12,200-paged supplementary charge sheet in the case of the ₹6,670-crore fraud at Punjab and
The economic offences wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police on Wednesday filed a 12,200-paged supplementary charge sheet in the case of the ₹6,670-crore fraud at Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank. In it, the roles of seven arrested accused, including four directors on PMC Bank’s board, and three chartered accountants who regularly carried out audits for the bank, were detailed.
A special investigating team (SIT) of EOW pressed charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy, common intention, along with relevant sections of the Banking Regulation Act, against former directors Rajneet Singh, Jagdish Mookhey, Trupti Bane and Mukti Bavisi; statutory auditors Jayesh Sanghani and Ketan Lakdawala; and concurrent auditor Anita Kirdat.
Joint commissioner of police (EOW) Rajvardhan Sinha confirmed, “On Wednesday, a 12,000-page supplementary charge sheet has been filed against the remaining four directors and auditors who allegedly overlooked the irregularities at the bank and ensured the Reserve Bank of India [RBI] doesn’t get to know about the irregularities [at PMC Bank].”
The first charge sheet – a 33,000-paged document – was submitted against Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited’s (HDIL) promoters, Rakesh Kumar and Sarang Wadhawan, and three other key accused in December 2019.
The supplementary charge sheet includes statements of nearly a dozen witnesses in addition to the 340 witnesses from the first charge sheet, and judicial confessions of four more bank employees.
Singh, son of former Bharatiya Janata Party legislator Sardar Tara Singh, was on PMC Bank’s recovery committee and was allegedly aware of the bad status of HDIL’s loan accounts. He, Bavisi, Mookhey and Bane allegedly overlooked irregularities deliberately.
Sanghani and Lakdawala are also charged with overlooking discrepancies despite RBI inspections indicating irregularities in HDIL’s loan accounts.
Kirdat, a Bhandup-based chartered accountant, served as concurrent auditor of PMC Bank between 2005 and 2019. She has been accused of shielding HDIL’s non-performing asset accounts from the RBI.
Senior inspector Kishore Parab of the SIT said, “We have prepared a watertight case and are sure of securing convictions.” Supervised by Sinha and deputy commissioner of police (special task force) Shrikant Paropkari, the SIT scanned hundreds of bank accounts and analysed phone call details of the accused as part of its four-month long investigation.
The EOW is awaiting a final audit, which is expected to show how HDIL formed bogus companies to route loan money and paid kickbacks to accused bank officials. “We would file another supplementary charge sheet in the case after receiving report of forensic audit of HDIL group of companies,” said a senior EOW official. RBI is in the process of evaluating HDIL assets mortgaged with PMC Bank with the intention of auctioning them to recover dues and provide relief to the bank’s depositors.
