A Mumbai court on Wednesday extended the police custody of former chairman of the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank Waryam Singh and Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) directors Rakesh Wadhawan and Sarang Wadhwan till October 23.
Hundreds of PMC Bank account holders staged a protest in front of Mumbai's Esplanade Court where the trio was produced as their police custody ended on Wednesday, and demanded that their money be returned at the earliest.
Protestors also observed a two-minutes silence expressing grief over the death of two PMC bank account holders on Tuesday. Sanjay Gulati, 51, died of cardiac arrest after he was unable to withdraw money for his specially-abled son's treatment. He was listed as a large depositor with the bank and had almost Rs 80 lakh in four accounts.
Another customer, Fattomal Punjabi also died on Tuesday. His family alleged that he was under stress following the crisis.
It may be recalled that after the scam erupted on September 23, the RBI had imposed wide-ranging sanctions on the PMC Bank and barred people from withdrawing more than Rs 1000 initially; later it was raised to Rs 25,000 and on Monday (October 14) to Rs 40,000
According to documents accessed by Zee Media, PMC Bank officials, accused in the Rs 4,500 crore scam, violated rules blatantly to build private properties using the money of the customers. The scam in PMC Bank was allegedly carried out by senior officials in connivance with HDIL promoters.
According to the police, PMC bank officials gave loans to HDIL between 2008 and 2019 despite no repayment of the previous loans. Joy Thomas, the former managing director of PMC Bank, is already in police custody.
On Tuesday, in an interview to Zee News, Home Minister Amit Shah assured that all PMC Bank depositors will get their money back as soon as possible.
Earlier, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the customers will not face any loss as the Centre has asked RBI to keep their interest in mind and resolve the ongoing crisis soon.
