PMC Bank Fallout: Government To Probe HDIL

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs is probing books of accounts of Housing Development & Infrastructure Ltd. after loans to the company brought Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank down, a senior government official said.

The regional office of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs is examining regulatory filings, financial statements and related-party transactions of the debt laden real estate firm, the official said requesting anonymity. The department’s report on the findings of the probe will be submitted to MCA Secretary Injeti Srinivas in about two months, the official said.

The probe has been initiated after the Reserve Bank of India found that PMC Bank had total exposure of 73 percent to HDIL. The loans from the cooperative bank helped HDIL delay insolvency proceedings, the bank’s former managing director K Joy Thomas had said.

On Monday, the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai Police filed a first information report against officials of PMC Bank and HDIL, and has formed a special investigation team to probe the matter. The report said that the bank faked loan records to under-report the company as a non-performing asset and presented it to the RBI.