Fadnavis assures PMC bank depositors to ease woes with Centre's help

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday said he would seek the Centre's help to ease woes of depositors of scam-hit Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank.

Some officials of the bank are accused of colluding with private firm HDIL to disburse loans fraudulently that ultimately caused a loss of Rs 4,355 crore to the lender.

In reply to a query on the bank, Fadnavis said, "I have assured PMC bank depositors that I will go to Delhi once model code of conduct (in force for the October 21 Assembly polls) is relaxed to seek the Centre's intervention. I will urge the Union finance minister and other officials to use all possible ways to find a solution to their problem."

"The bank has a multi-state license, hence largely, the RBI has more control over it. However, we do not want to shrug off our responsibilities over such technical issues," Fadnavis said.

Fadnavis pointed out that the Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had lodged a complaint and was probing the issue.

"Some arrests have been made after the complaint was lodged with the EOW. The property of accused has been seized, and eventually we will sell it to recover depositors' money. We will take all steps to return depositors' money," he said.