On Monday, The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) arrested two auditors which were connected with the PMC Bank scam and will produce them in court to seek their remand. 5 more auditors were also arrested earlier for the same scam.
“Jayesh Dhirajlal Sanghani and Ketan Pravinchand Lakdwala were called for investigation at office of the Economic Offences Wing, Mumbai, during the course of investigation their association with HDIL came into light and both couldn’t provide convincing explanations regarding their alleged role as statutory auditors of PMC bank , hence both were arrested for further investigation,” read a press note from EOW.
“Both accused will be produced tomorrow for availing police custaody before ACMM Holiday Court, Esplanade, Mumbai. Further investigation of accused persons is in progress,” it read.
In the end of September, RBI restricted the PMC Bank activities for about 6 months. It was ordered to not grant or renew any kind of loan or advance in these six months. It was restricted to make any investment or incur any liability, including borrower of funds and acceptance of fresh deposits.
It was necessory to order this restriction as there were lot of financial irregularities, lack of internal control and systems of bank. It was also found that the bank was reporting wrong and under statements of its exposures under various off-site surveillance reports.
The reserve bank of India also sacked the Board of directors of the bank under sub-sections 1 and 2 of section 36 AAA read with section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act 1949. The bank is now under the full control of the administrator.
PMC Bank is a multi-state scheduled urban cooperative bank with operations in Maharashtra, New Delhi, Karnataka, Goa, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. With a network of 137 branches, it ranks among the top 10 cooperative banks in the country.
Apart from the above mentioned auditors one more has found to be involved and arrested to rake remand and enquire about the case.