Mumbai : Suspended MD of PMC bank arrested

Mumbai police on Friday arrested Joy Thomas, the suspended Managing Director of the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank and are interrogating him.

On September 30, Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police had registered an FIR against senior officials of Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) and PMC bank in connection with a fraud of over Rs 4,355 crores.

"Joy Thomas, Managing Director of PMC Bank who was missing has been arrested today. He is being interrogated and further investigation is underway," said Pranay Ashok, the Public Relation Officer of Mumbai Police.

The Promoters of debt-ridden Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan, accused in PMC Bank scam, were also sent to police custody till October 9 by the Esplanade Court. The accused were brought to Esplanade Court in the afternoon by EOW for remand proceedings.

The duo was arrested after they failed to cooperate in the investigation. A total of 10 out of 44 accounts that led to the bank falling in debt were linked to HDIL. Personal accounts of the accused were among those 10 accounts.

According to the police, PMC bank officials gave loans to HDIL between 2008 and 2019 despite no repayment of the previous loans.

The FIR was registered under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 466 (forgery of record of court or public register), 471 (using a forged document as genuine) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).

Suspended MD Joy Thomas had on September 28 admitted that the bank did not report the financial exposure to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for over six years.