Mumbai: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police arrested three board of directors in connection with the Rs 4,355 crore scam of Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank on Tuesday.
Police said that it was revealed during investigation, the directors, who had served as members of key committees of the PMC Bank, which awarded loan facilities to the HDIL Group.
It was also revealed that during the peak period of fraud in PMC Bank, they had played a pivotal role to cover up the scam. Police said, Jagdish Mookhey, one of the directors who was member of Audit Committee of PMC Bank was arrested on Tuesday evening along with Mukti Bavisi, member of Loans and Advances Committee and Trupti Bane, member of Recovery Committee from 2010-2015 and member of Loan and Advances Committee from 2015-2020, after they failed to provide satisfactory explanations for their role in the PMC Bank scam.
They were called for interrogation on Tuesday to ascertain their roles with respect to the loans and facilities extended to the HDIL Group and the status of the long-pending recoveries.
After loopholes were found in their versions of what went wrong in the use of funds, it was deemed necessary that they be arrested for further investigation, said a senior EOW official.
Subsequently, they were arrested by EOW and booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. The trio will be produced before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, in Esplanade court on Wednesday.
The EOW believes, prima facie a nexus between some of the accused and HDIL group companies was made out by the agency. They said, a deep-rooted conspiracy caused loss of public funds.
The EOW so far arrested 12 people, including promoters of realty group HDIL, auditors and top bank officials, in connection with the case. Till now, at least six people have lost their lives due to loss of money and the public is protesting over the irregularities.
