HDIL chief, son held in PMC Bank case

Mumbai: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police on Thursday arrested the promoters of the realty firm Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL)— Rakesh Wadhawan and his son Sarang Wadhawan— and also provisionally attached their properties worth more than Rs 3,500 crore, in connection with the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank scam, said a senior official.

A special investigation team of the EOW had summoned the Wadhawans on Thursday, but they did not cooperate during the interrogation and they were later placed under arrest, the official said.

Interrogation of the father-son duo is going on and all those involved in this case will be called for inquiry, the official said.

An FIR registered by the EOW has accused the bank’s management of concealing non-performing assets and disbursing loans, leading to a loss of at least of Rs 4,355 crore.

The accused and their companies had taken a huge loan but did not repay it, creating panic among account holders. This chaos led to the appointment of an administrator for the bank by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The FIR names the bank’s chairman Waryam Singh and its managing director Joy Thomas, along with other bank officials and accuses them of criminal breach of trust, forgery and falsification of records.

It also names the Wadhawans, who were beneficiaries of the loans. PMC Bank’s exposure to HDIL Group was around Rs 6,500 crore as of September 19, 2019, Thomas mentioned in his letter to the RBI.

The police had issued look out circulars (LOCs) against 17 persons, including the Wadhawans, to ensure that they could not leave the country.

Meanwhile, in a relief to the harried customers of PMC Bank, the RBI has increased the withdrawal limit for accounts from Rs 10,000 in six months to Rs 25,000 in the same period.