Director claims he was unaware of fraud; seeks pre-arrest bail

Former director of Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank and owner of Golden Palace group of hotels, Surjit Singh Narang approached the sessions court on

Former director of Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank and owner of Golden Palace group of hotels, Surjit Singh Narang approached the sessions court on Tuesday for anticipatory bail. Narang, 71, claims he was not aware of the loans extended by the crisis-hit cooperative bank to the Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) group.

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Narang is the second director to have approached the sessions’ court for anticipatory bail, fearing arrest in connection with the ₹4,355-crore fraud at PMC Bank. The court has now asked the prosecution to file a reply on all the pleas by November 8.

In his plea, Narang said he was one of the promoters of PMC Bank and had been part of the bank’s executive committee since its inception in 1984. “Since the board of directors is not involved in the day-to-day affairs and operations of the bank and since they do not have access to any records of the bank, the knowledge of the directors about the affairs and operations of the bank are restricted to inputs from the professional management team and the audit reports,” said Narang in his plea, adding that he was not aware of the loans and advances made to HDIL, which accounted for two-thirds of PMC Bank’s loan exposure. Narang also said that he had a paralytic attack in July 2019 and requires bed rest as part of his treatment.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Police’s economic offences wing (EOW) said a team has been sent to Amritsar to locate Daljit Singh Bal and Gurnam Singh Hothi, two wanted directors of PMC Bank. The two are absconding and their relatives have told the police that Bal and Hothi may be in Punjab. Bal and Hothi had previously written letters to EOW in which they claimed they were not involved in the fraud.