PMC Bank auditors sent to police custody; EOW to talk to depositors

On Friday, the court extended the police custody of two private auditors, Jayesh Sanghani and Ketan Lakdawala, who were arrested on November 11.As part of the investigation

On Friday, the court extended the police custody of two private auditors, Jayesh Sanghani and Ketan Lakdawala, who were arrested on November 11.As part of the investigation into the ₹4,355-crore fraud carried out at Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank, Mumbai Police’s economic offences wing (EOW) has also questioned four auditors from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

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On Friday, Sanghani and Lakdawala were produced in court.

“We sought extension of their custody by convincing the court that we need to confront them with each other to verify certain facts that emerged during the investigation. The court was convinced and remanded Sanghani and Lakdawala in police custody till November 19,” said investigation officer Kishore Parab.

The RBI’s inspection had pointed out serious discrepancies in the facility accounts of Housing development infrastructure Limited (HDIL), but Sanghani and Lakdawala had overlooked it. A third auditor, Anita Kirdat, is already in police custody till November 19. EOW officials said that prima facie, the forensic audit report has revealed that Sanghani and Lakdawala did not give “adverse opinion” for five financial years (2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19) and this clearly indicates wilful omission on the parts of the two statutory auditors.

Two more concurrent auditors, who do day-to-day auditing of books, are also under the EOW’s scanner. Archita Shah and Komal Shah of Archita & Associates CA Firm, were brought for concurrent auditing at PMC Bank, on Sanghani’s recommendation and had carried out audits between 2014 and 2019. The two auditors have been questioned by the police, but have not been arrested.

The EOW has also decided to record the testimonials of 10-20 depositors of the scam-hit PMC Bank.

“This is intended to show the extent of loss or damage suffered by the bank’s depositors and add weightage to the EOW’s case,” an officer said.