Muralidhar Dhara, another accountholder of Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank (PMC), facing a massive financial crisis due to the scandal, died due to a heart attack on Friday. Earlier, two other account holders of the same bank, Sanjay Gulati and Fatemal Punjabi, have died of heart attack, who were extremely worried about their money deposited in the bank, while a female doctor had allegedly committed suicide.
Construction company HDIL has defrauded the bank of about Rs 4,300 crore, due to which the bank has not only broken its back, but the Reserve Bank has imposed several restrictions on it for six months. Now the account holders of the bank can withdraw only 40 thousand rupees in six months.
The relatives of the deceased say that the doctor had advised Muralidhar Dhara to do heart surgery, but due to the RBI ban, they could not withdraw their money from PMC Bank. Muralidhar’s son Prem Dhara said that his 83-year-old father died at his home in Mulund. He said that his family has Rs 80 lakh deposited in the bank.
Another account holder of PMC bank died of heart attack
Sanjay Gulati (51), a resident of Mumbai, died on Monday. Sanjay first lost his job with Jet Airways, then with savings, he was somehow living with his family. Meanwhile, a big scam case came up in PMC. Sanjay had also deposited Rs 90 lakh in the PMC, he was shocked after hearing the news of the scam. Sanjay’s deposit capital ie Rs 90 lakhs was also trapped.
After Sanjay, Fatemal Punjabi, who lives in Mulund area of Mumbai, died on Tuesday. He had a heart attack when he was leaving the house for the bank. He died before reaching the hospital. Punjabi Bank, which had a regular share in the Protest of PMC bank account holders, had deposits of Rs 8-10 lakh.
What is PMC fraud
Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank had been running a financial fraud for almost a decade. Investigating officials say the bank management led by Joy Thomas had opened thousands of dummy accounts to fund construction company HDIL. The game had been going on for almost 10 years. The regulator has come to know that Thomas and some of the management together gave Rs 4,226 crore (73% of the bank’s total loan) to only one company, HDIL, which has now gone bankrupt.
Two-third of the total loan disbursed by the bank given to only one customer. In such a situation, the insolvency of this bank beaten and RBI stopped its functioning. He fixed the limit for the depositors to withdraw money. Earlier, the RBI had set an upper limit of withdrawal of Rs 1,000 from every bank account, which increased to Rs 10,000. After this, the limit increased to 25 thousand and now this limit increased to 40 thousand rupees.
The Special Investigation Team of the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police produced Rakesh Wadhawan and his son Sarang before a local court after arresting them. The EOW had filed an FIR against senior officials of HDIL and PMC Bank on charges of defrauding the bank of Rs 4,355.43 crore.
