PMC Bank Fraud: HC rejects bail plea of bank director Jasvinder Singh Banwait

The Bombay high court on Tuesday rejected the plea filed by Jasvinder Singh Banwait, one of the directors of fraud-hit Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank, seeking bail on medical grounds.

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Banwait had moved the high court seeking bail on medical grounds given novel coronavirus pandemic.

Justice Sadhana Jadhav rejected the plea after reviewing a report submitted by the chief medical officer at Taloja central prison. The report stated that Banwait had complained of bronchial asthma on March 12, 2020, when he was brought to the prison and had given a history of diabetes mellitus.

The report added that at present he is on medication and necessary diet. Special food was being provided to all prisoners, as directed by the court and Banwait’s health condition was stable and satisfactory.

Justice Jadhav rejected the plea but directed the jail authorities to continue to provide medicines and necessary diet to the prisoner.

Economic offences wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police had on September 30, 2019, registered an offence in connection with the fraud at the multi-state scheduled cooperative bank, accusing many of its directors of illegally extending huge loans to realty firm Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) and its group companies.

According to the Reserve Bank of India, PMC Bank had masked 44 problematic loan accounts involving advances to the tune of ₹7,457.49 crore to some entities, including HDIL, by tampering with its core banking system, and the accounts were accessible only to limited staff members.

The bank had created 21,049 fictions accounts to ensure its master data tallies to the loan disbursals of ₹7,457.49 crore, RBI has stated in an affidavit filed in response to other PMC Bank related petitions before the high court.