Absconding since the past four days, Joy Thomas’ arrest came a day after the Chairman and the Managing Director of HDIL were arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police.
Depositors and investors gather outside a Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank branch after the RBI barred the bank from carrying out a majority of its routine business transactions for a six-month period. (Photo: IANS)
Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank Ltd’s missing Managing Director Joy Thomas was arrested from Mumbai on Friday in connection with the Rs 4,335 crore fraud case.
“Yes, we have arrested the official in connection with the PMC Bank case registered by the Economic Offences Wing here,” Mumbai Police spokesperson, DCP Pranay Ashok was quoted as saying by IANS.
Absconding since the past four days, Joy Thomas’ arrest came a day after Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan, the Chairman, and Sarang Wadhawan, Managing Director of HDIL were arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police.
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Meanwhile, the hunt is on for the former chairman of PMC Bank Wareyam Singh.
Promoters of the debt-ridden Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) and board members of the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank have been charged with money laundering by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a Rs 6,500- crore loan default case.
The ED has registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) on the basis of FIR of Economic Offences Wing (EOW).
The sleuths of the federal financial investigation agency also carried out raids at six locations in Mumbai.
Mumbai Police had on Monday filed a case against the former bank management and promoters of HDIL in the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank case and said a special investigation team will be probing the case.
It is alleged that HDIL, which is facing bankruptcy proceedings, and its group companies had taken huge loans from PMC Bank.
An FIR was filed by Jasbir Singh Matta, manager, recovery department, of PMC Bank. It is also alleged that as many as 21,049 fictitious bank accounts were allegedly created to hide the loans, which were disbursed in violation of the Reserve Bank of India norms.
The central bank clamped down on PMC as it found the bank had under-reported non-performing assets (NPAs) during its annual inspection.
Last week, the RBI barred the PMC Bank, Mumbai from carrying out the majority of its routine business transactions for a period of six months, sparking panic among the depositors and sending shock-waves in the city banking and business circles.
However, on Thursday, the RBI raised withdrawal limit for account holders of the stressed PMC Bank to Rs. 25,000 from earlier withdrawal limit of Rs 10,000.
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