Mumbai: Former managing director of Punjab Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank, Joy Thomas, was arrested on Friday in connection with the alleged Rs 4,355 crore scam at the bank by the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai Police.
Thomas was summoned to the EOW office at the city police headquarters and arrested after questioning, a police official said.
On Thursday, EOW had arrested Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) directors Rakesh Wadhawan and his son Sarang Wadhawan in the case. Both father and son were summoned to the EOW office of Mumbai Police and when the sleuths found that they were not cooperating in the probe, they arrested them.
"We have arrested the two accused and their interrogation is on," said EOW chief Rajvardhan Sinha had said.
ED files PMLA case, raids at 6 places in Mumbai
EOW had registered an FIR on Monday against senior officials of HDIL and the PMC Bank for allegedly causing losses to the tune of Rs 4,355.43 crore to the bank.
Property of Rs 3,500 crore belonging to the company was seized by the EOW during the investigation, he said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also initiated investigation by registering a case of money laundering, another official said.
ED officials raided six places in the city and suburbs and collected some important documents related to the case, he said.
They said the raids were being conducted after a criminal compliant was filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the central agency.
The Enforcement Directorate case is based on an FIR filed by the EOW.
The raids are aimed at gathering additional evidence, ED sources said.
The ED and Mumbai Police case is against former bank management and promoters of the HDIL.
Based on a complaint by an RBI-appointed administrator, the police complaint was filed earlier this week on charges of forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy against the officials.
The bank's former chairman Waryam Singh, managing director Joy Thomas and other senior officials, along with HDIL director Rakesh Wadhawan have been named in the police FIR, now taken cognisance by the ED.
Describing the modus operandi of the alleged irregularities, the police FIR had said HDIL promoters allegedly colluded with the bank management, to draw loans from the its Bhandup branch.
ED, sources said, is also looking for evidence for the alleged tainted assets of the accused so that they can be attached under the PMLA.
Despite non-payment, the bank officials did not classify the loans as non performing advances and intentionally hid the information about it from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the police said.
They also created fictitious accounts of companies which borrowed small sums of money and created fake reports of the bank to hide from the regulatory supervision, it said.
The police 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).
The bank, which has 137 branches and over Rs 11,000 crore in deposits, has been put under restrictions since last week after the RBI discovered certain financial irregularities in the functioning of the multi-state lender.
According to sources, the overall exposure of the bank to the financially stressed HDIL group is around Rs 6,500 crore or over 73 per cent of the advances, and all of it is not being serviced.
(With IANS inputs)
