Mumbai police's EOW files FIR against officials of HDIL, Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative Bank

Pic courtesy: Reuters

Mumbai: The Economic Offences Wing (EoW) of Mumbai Police has registered an FIR against senior officials of Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) and Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank over allegedly causing losses to the tune of Rs 4,355.43 crore to the bank.

The FIR mentioned PMC Bank`s now-suspended Managing Director Joy Thomas, Chairman Waryam Singh, and other executives. It also mentions the involvement of Sarang Wadhawan, the Vice Chairman and Managing Director of HDIL. 

The EOW has also appointed a special team to carry out investigations into the case. The first information report (FIR) has been filed under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant or banker), 420 (cheating), and 465, 466 and 471 (related to forgery) of the Indian Penal Code along with 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy). 

As per the complaint, the bank officials, between 2008 and 2019, deliberately violated banking norms and showed false profits to mislead the authorities, although the bank was actually incurring losses. 

It also said that the bank also veiled the group`s large exposure and non-performing assets (NPAs) from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by creating dummy accounts. 

Earlier in the day, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur said that the irregularities at the PMC Bank raise questions on the roles of the regulator (RBI), auditor, independent directors and bank directors, adding that the government will look into all the areas because eventually, it is going to impact the common man.