Sharad Pawar Meets Anurag Thakur To Discuss PMC Bank’s Revival

Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar on Monday met Union Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur to discuss possibilities of revival of the troubled Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative Bank.

After the meeting in Delhi, Pawar termed the discussion as "constructive".

PMC Bank has been put under restrictions by the Reserve Bank of India, after a multi-crore scam came to light following which the deposit withdrawal was initially capped at Rs 1,000, causing panic and distress among depositors.

The withdrawal limit was increased gradually to Rs 50,000.

"Had a meeting with the Union Minister of State for Finance, Shri Anurag Singh Thakur (@ianuragthakur) in New Delhi to raise the issue of revival of PMC Bank. We had a constructive exchange of views on the topic," Pawar tweeted.

The fraud at PMC Bank came to light in September 2019 after the Reserve Bank of India discovered that the bank had allegedly created fictitious accounts to hide more than Rs 6,700 crore in loans extended to the almost-bankrupt Housing Development & Infrastructure Ltd.

According to the central bank, PMC Bank masked 44 problematic loan accounts, including HDIL loan accounts, by tampering with its core banking system, and the accounts were accessible only to limited staff members.

Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing and the Enforcement Directorate have registered offences in the PMC Bank case.

The EOW last month submitted a 32,000-page charge sheet against five persons in the multi-crore scam. The charge sheet has named former managing director of the bank Joy Thomas, former chairman Waryam Singh, former director of the bank Surjit Singh Arora, along with HDIL promoters Rakesh Wadhawan and Sarang Wadhawan.

The charge sheet includes the forensic audit report of PMC Bank and documents of properties purchased by the accused bank officials with kickbacks received by them for giving undue favour to HDIL and the Wadhawans.