HDIL’s properties to be auctioned for PMC Bank’s revival, providing relief to depositors, Maharashtra minister tells Shiv Sena MLA
In a written reply to Shiv Sena’s Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Ravindra Waikar, Maharashtra minister of state for home Satej Patil has stated that the seized properties associated with the Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) in the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank fraud case will be auctioned to revive the financial institution’s functions.
Last year in December, Waikar had raised the PMC Bank fraud issue under the point of procedure in the legislative Assembly. He had demanded the merger of the beleaguered bank with any other lender, having a “sound financial position” to provide relief to its depositors.
The reply by the minister stated that a committee appointed under the governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is currently assessing the value of HDIL’s properties which were mortgaged with the bank, so that they can be auctioned to revive the financial institution and provide relief to its depositors. The reply stated that among the various properties in Maharashtra, 14 vehicles and two ships of HDIL; a bunglow at Alibag belonging to HDIL’s promoters Rakesh Wadhawan and his son and Sarang; a Pune flat in the name of the wife of PMC’s former executive director Joy Thomas and a hotel in Amritsar belonging to Waryam Singh – the bank’s former chairman – have been seized.
“International properties belonging to the accused in the case are also under investigation,” Patil is said to have written in the letter, as per a media note issued by Waikar’s office on Sunday.
According to the reply, PMC Bank replaced 44 loan accounts of the HDIL group with more than 21,000 fake loan accounts and thus, also camouflaged the defaults made by the group. HDIL is said to be PMC Bank’s biggest loan defaulter, with over ₹6,000 crore granted to it between 2008 and 2019.
