Government has nothing to do with PMC bank scam, RBI will take action: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

The FM, however, assured that the Reserve Bank of India will take appropriate action against those found guilty in the PMC bank scam.

MUMBAI: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that the government has nothing to do whatsoever with the multi-crore Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank scam in which thousands of depositors have been duped of their money by its promoters.

The FM, however, assured that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will take appropriate action against those found guilty in the PMC bank scam.

''Finance Ministry may have nothing to do with it (PMC bank matter) directly because RBI is the regulator. But from my side, I've asked the secretaries of my ministry to work with Rural Development Ministry and the Urban Development Ministry to study in detail as to what is happening,'' the FM said.

FM: Finance Ministry may have nothing to do with it (PMC bank matter) directly because RBI is the regulator. But from my side, I've asked the secretaries of my ministry to work with Rural Development Ministry & Urban Development Ministry to study in detail as to what is happening pic.twitter.com/DyKhXJfiqk — ANI (@ANI) October 10, 2019

FM Sitharaman said this after meeting the depositors of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank, who staged a massive protest outside the BJP office in Mumbai.

While addressing the media after the meeting, Sitharaman stated that the government has set up a group to prevent such incidents.

As the FM addressed the media, Krishna, a depositor said, "I don't know what they're doing, don't care what they're doing. I want my money back. I won't be able to earn again whatever I've put in the bank."

On Wednesday, hundreds of depositors of the PMC Bank staged a protest outside the Esplanade magistrate's court, demanding stringent action against the culprits as the police custody of three accused in Rs 4,355 crore scam at the bank was extended till October 14.

The court granted the request of the Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for further remand.

Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) chairman and managing director Rakesh Wadhawan, his son Sarang and former bank chairman Waryam Singh have been booked by the EOW in connection with the scam for allegedly causing losses to the tune of Rs 4,355.43 crore to the bank.

Besides the trio, the EOW has also arrested Joy Thomas, former managing director of the bank, whose police custody is set to expire on October 17.

The EOW had earlier told the court that bank officials replaced 44 loan accounts of HDIL with 21,049 fictitious loan accounts, to camouflage huge loan defaults by the real estate group which landed the bank in the current crisis.