PMC Bank (Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank) once again came into the limelight on Monday when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made a statement on this in the Lok Sabha. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the Lok Sabha about the PMC Bank Scam that 78 per cent depositors of the bank are now allowed to withdraw their entire amount from the bank. She said that as far as the bank's promoters are concerned, we have ensured that their confiscated assets can be given to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) with certain conditions so that these assets can be auctioned and this amount received can be given to the depositors.
The Mumbai Police's Economic Offenses Wing arrested two auditors last month in the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC Bank) scam. So far seven arrests have been made in this case. Five people, including the bank's top management and promoters of HDIL, were arrested earlier. At the time of the scam at PMC Bank, both auditors Jayesh Sanghani and Ketan Lakdawala were working as auditors and played an important role in hiding irregularities with some of the bank's top officials. Financial fraud was going on in PMC Bank for almost a decade.
According to investigating officials, thousands of fake accounts were opened by bank management led by Joy Thomas to fund construction company HDIL. The game had been going on for almost 10 years. The regulator initially learned that Thomas and some of the management together had given Rs 4,226 crore (73 per cent of the bank's total debt) to only one company, HDIL, which went bankrupt.
