The special court hearing the PMC Bank fraud case has granted bail to former managing director Joy Thomas on the ground of long incarceration. With this, Thomas would be able to walk out of the Taloja prison after spending five years in jail.
Thomas had moved bail on the ground of parity after former chairman of the bank Waryam Singh was granted bail by the Bombay High Court earlier in the year on the ground of long incarceration.
The special court accepted the grounds of parity and while granting bail to Thomas observed, “Waryam Singh was arrested on October 5, 2019 and applicant was arrested on October 4, 2019, therefore, this is a fit case on the ground of parity as well as on the grounds of long incarceration for releasing the applicant accused on the bail.”
The prosecution alleged that Thomas, who was the managing director of PMC Bank at the time, was fully aware of the procedures and irregularities that occurred within the bank during the sanctioning of loans. Despite being duty-bound to report these issues to the relevant authorities, he failed to bring them to the attention of regulators.
Defence lawyer Hussain Kazi contended that Thomas is behind the prison for more than five years in the case where trial is not yet began.
The prosecution had, however, objected to the bail plea observing that Thomas had close nexus with Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan of HDIL group who were the major defaulters of the bank. The prosecution had claimed that HDIL group of companies were the largest borrower of PMC Bank and they have kept dues to the tune of Rs 4335.46 crore unpaid until 2019.
The applicant, MD and other functionaries, including the board of directors, executives of the PMC Bank intentionally reported false records of accounts to the RBI to suppress the material position of loan accounts of HDIL group of companies, the prosecution had argued.
The court, however, refused to go into the merits of the case and purely considered the order of the high court granting bail to Singh and long incarceration of Thomas without trial.
